


Glittery Boop

by Bbaegi



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Glitter, Lots of it, M/M, Makeup, alcohol consumption, lots of it too, this fic doesn't make sense beware, yay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-02 12:18:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 45,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16305086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bbaegi/pseuds/Bbaegi
Summary: Baekhyun was blinding whether Chanyeol was drunk or sober, whether he wore glitter on his eyelids or not.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> look who's back with another chaptered fic when she already dropped two lmao BUT THIS ONE WILL BE FINISHED!!! TRUST ME!!! bc I already wrote it entirely so I'm just posting it in parts bc I'm too lazy to edit all of it at once lmao yay for smol chapters!!  
> I wrote this fic kind of bc I wanted to write something easy but I made it too long and it didn't turn out as great as I planned and I also didn't have as much fun as I thought I would but weeeell I don't hate it either hehe I hope you'll enjoy it <3

Jongdae had a big mouth. Chanyeol had never noticed before.

 

Kind of like a megaphone. Whatever he said was loud and projected right into Chanyeol’s ears and all across the room and Chanyeol had no idea how he had never noticed it before. It could open wide. It felt like Jongdae wasn’t talking. It felt like Jongdae was the words he pronounced. Chanyeol wondered how many fries Jongdae could fit in that mouth. He hoped it wasn’t as many as he could fit. He hoped he could fit in his own mouth as many fries as Jongdae could fit in his. The more fries, the better.

 

Now that he thought about it, Chanyeol was kind of a fry. Tall, blonde, and gorgeous. So that was why he loved fries so much. Chanyeol liked to eat his own kind. Interesting.

 

But Jongdae had a bigger mouth. Surprisingly. Alcohol really opened up the mind and the eyes.

 

"Don’t you think so?" Jongdae asked, his broad mouth finally producing sound again.

 

Chanyeol blinked, towed his gaze up from his mouth to his eyes. Jongdae blinked, awaiting an answer to something Chanyeol hadn’t heard. It wasn’t his fault. His ears had just been scared off by Jongdae’s gigantic mouth for a while. But they’d gathered their courage and were back now. He shouldn’t blow their cover and humiliate them.

 

"Yeah," he said, dragging the sound out and humming as he brought his glass up to sip on whatever was inside. He didn’t know. It could be beer. A martini? Vodka or bourbon. He’d drank so much he couldn’t differentiate tastes anymore. Jongdae was still blinking. He had to say something. "The novel I’m translating now is about mutant teens with snake tongues."

 

Jongdae nodded with a low and stretched _oh_. Perhaps he’d been talking about weird kids while Chanyeol couldn’t hear him. Had he hit the bull in the eye? Or the face? Or was it the ear? He didn’t know but he’d done it. Chanyeol was so smart. Tall, blonde, gorgeous, _and_ smart. He was such a good catch.

 

He shifted his weight on his legs and lost his balance for a moment. Jongdae grabbed his arm to steady him. See? He was a good catch.

 

"But don’t you think that novel is kind of exploiting snakes?" Jongdae said then, eyebrows stretching into a frown as monumental as his mouth.

 

Chanyeol tilted his head. "Actually you’re right. Why do they need to make fun of snakes? Poor snakes probably feel very insecure about their forked tongue."

 

Jongdae _gasped._ "Do you think that’s why they hiss at people and show their tongue before attacking? Because they think it’s a feature that scare them away?"

 

Chanyeol deflated, looking down into the sloshing in his glass. "I can’t believe other animals conditioned snakes into thinking their special tongue is ugly and scary." Poor, poor snakes. He should maybe buy a snake. Chanyeol would reassure it every day about its cute tongue. But then Toben might get jealous and eat the snake.

 

He swore that pup was energetic and crazy enough to defeat even a snake. No. No snake for him. Chanyeol would _not_ contribute to the bullying of snakes.

 

"Jongdae!" someone called out from the other side of the room and they both whipped around to see someone energetically waving towards them while jumping up and down on the other side of the room.

 

Chanyeol couldn’t recognize them, he wasn’t sure whether it was the alcohol or if he just didn’t know them. Whose house was this even? Why was he in a party with people he didn’t know?

 

"Jaehee, my dude," Jongdae screamed back, raising a hand and waving just as energetically. Chanyeol narrowed his eyes. Jaehee. He didn’t know who that was but he knew who that was.Yes. That was a name he knew.

 

But from where? He gulped on the magical potion in his glass for more knowledge. All it gave him was a cough when Jongdae hit his chest and told him he’d be back in a while. Chanyeol nodded and looked down as he choked on his drink. He squeezed his eyes shut and breathed in and once the coughing subsided, he opened his eyes again. Oh. That ugly thing on the floor was Jongdae’s carpet. Right. This was his best friend’s house.

 

But the shoes that suddenly stepped on the carpet, right in front of Chanyeol’s own sneakers, weren’t Jongdae’s. He looked up and blinked a few times. Too much shine and color and dazzles. He blinked, and blinked, and once his eyes had gotten used to it, he looked into a gaze crowned by pink and purple glitter. Was this an alien? With glittery eyelids? No way this was a man. No man looked so good with makeup on. He’d never even seen a man wear makeup outside of youtube thumbnails. Alien then. This was a pretty alien.

 

The alien opened his eyes and frowned at him.

 

"Man, your clothes are so ugly."

 

Shit. This was an evil alien. Came to invade their world and his first victim would be Chanyeol. No. He shouldn’t let the pretty alien win over him. Nope. He should fight back.

 

"That’s not a nice thing to say," he mumbled, moving to cross his arms over his chest for maximum intimidation only to remember he was holding a drink when a few drops spilled on his hand.

 

"I’m not saying it to be mean!" the perhaps-human-probably-alien guy defended himself, waving a hand between them. A hand that was perfect to be stared at. "I just want to help you."

 

Chanyeol grimaced, watching as the alien, who had a misunderstanding of the human concept of kindness, failed in his blinking. It was as if the eyelashes of one of his eyes got stuck together for a second. It was a stutter, a glitch in his system. Maybe he actually was a robot. A cyborg. That could explain the shine, although it wasn’t metallic. This was a cotton candy cyborg.

 

"How is insulting me going to help me?" he asked, trying his hardest to figure out how the mind of a cyborg worked. It was seemingly a stupid mind. Perhaps they weren’t more advanced than humans up there, in the stars.

 

"You see that Kibum guy over there?" he said, pointing to their left. Chanyeol followed his finger but couldn’t see a Kibum guy over there. He didn’t even know a Kibum guy. He didn’t know half of Jongdae’s friends. When the glittery alien’s hand dropped and he looked back at Chanyeol, it was with a scrunch of his nose. "Well, he’s an asshole. He _will_ drag you for your clothes. Don’t go near him. He dragged _me_ and I look amazing. He’d destroy you."

 

Once again, Chanyeol followed the lead of his hand and looked down at where the other gestured, his own body. His clothes. And those were some clothes.

 

He had nice legs. They weren’t the longest legs Chanyeol had ever seen but somehow, they didn’t really look that short either. Maybe it was the pants. They were a little shiny, but not in the way his eyes were shiny. The fabric just had a sheen to it, one that didn’t necessarily look expensive but just well-chosen. It didn’t hug his legs suffocatingly but just enough to accentuate their shape and length, the breadth of his hips. Those were some nice hips. Probably very nice to hug.

 

Just like his shirt hugged his chest. Not really. That was a lame hug. The shirt wasn’t buttoned all the way up, but tucked into his pants, large enough for the fabric to ripple and puff a little around his waist. Allied to the stripe of skin thickening as it went up from around the middle of his torso, it was a pleasant, enticing sight. Chanyeol would’ve stared at the sanguine red of the patterned fabric if a glow on the alien’s collarbones hadn’t caught his attention. It was a layer of gold, highlighting the sculpt of collarbones, creaming the skin.

 

This wasn’t fair. Aliens were supposed to look weird, not hot. And cuddly. Chanyeol kind of wanted to nuzzle his nose against the golden glow of those collarbones. Perhaps the alien had just stollen the radiance and the warmth of the sun to tuck it into his own skin. Chanyeol would love to test that theory out.

 

He looked back up at the other’s face and grinned, the alien reflecting it right away. It was a pretty nice smile. A very nice smile. The glitter was on his eyelids, not on his lips and yet, Chanyeol’s eyes were surprised by the brilliance offered to them for a moment. It felt wrong to call something so mesmerizing an alien.

 

"Oh," Chanyeol said when the other remained silent. Right. It was his turn to speak. "You do look very great. I like your clothes. You make the clothes look pretty awesome. Pretty."

 

He laughed, not really a shy laugh, but a soft one. He shrugged his shoulders and more than a sign of nonchalance, it was a sign of pleasance.

 

"Thank you very much." And then he _hehe-ed_. Was this legal according to intergalactic laws? This amount of adorableness? Was there a space police station Chanyeol could report this to?

 

But would they even take him in there? Apparently, aliens had to dress nicely. Chanyeol looked down at himself. He was dressed awesomely. His jeans weren’t even ripped at the knees and he was wearing his favorite, warmest hoodie. This was Chanyeol’s best outfit, according to his own standards. Maximum comfort. Minimum amount of effort. Maximum score in the I’d-sleep-in-this department. Or not. Chanyeol didn’t like sleeping in jeans. He’d have to take them off. That meant this wasn’t his best outfit at all. This meant this was a disastrous outfit.

 

He pursed his lips and looked back at the fashionable alien cyborg beauty.

 

"Do you really think my clothes suck?" he asked in a mumble, chewing on his lower lip afterwards.

 

The other hummed, studying his outfit while crossing his arms against his chest. It tugged the fabric of his shirt down even more, freed an additional inch of skin. Were he not so sad about his own clothes, Chanyeol would’ve wondered how that skin would look like with no red fabric on it at all.

 

"I mean," he said, stopped for a long while before shaking his head and blinking. Another glitch. Perhaps aliens didn’t work well with alcohol. Look at Chanyeol. He had downed glasses after glasses of various drinks and he was still doing pretty good. He was better than aliens. "Let’s say you could’ve done better."

 

Chanyeol sighed, feeling his entire body slumping with the breath that left him.

 

"But this is my favorite hoodie," he argued weakly. "It’s so comfortable and soft and warm. Here, touch it," he offered, grabbing the other’s hand and pulling it closer. He’d do anything to defend his hoodie’s honor.

 

The alien let him guide his hand and frowned when chanyeol pressed it flat against his chest. It took a short moment of staring for the other to eventually move his hand and stroke the fabric, hesitantly and halfheartedly. Then, he stopped.

 

"Oh," he hummed and truly started touching the hoodie, caressing the fabric back and forth. "Oh my god," he said, or rather questioned. His intonation went up higher towards the end of his sentence and Chanyeol grinned. His hoodie was winning over the other. He knew he could trust the power of the hoodie, had known it was special the moment he’d first touched it years ago before buying it instantly. "Oh god, I want to cuddle you," the hoodie-seduced alien suddenly blurted out.

 

Instantly, Chanyeol perked up with a large grin.

 

"Really?" he asked excitedly, still holding onto the wrist of the hand that was still touching his hoodie, giving it the love and recognition it deserved.

 

"Yeah!" the alien answered just as enthusiastically, bouncing once on the sole of his feet. "This is like the best cuddling costume. It’s so warm and soft and just touching it feels like a hug," he explained, hand gripping the fabric, balling it in his palm.

 

At that moment, Chanyeol did feel very much hugged by his hoodie _and_ those words. Someone wanted to cuddle him just because of his flawless taste in clothing. And that someone could potentially be from a different planet. Alien or not, Chanyeol was always down to be cuddled.

 

"Hell yeah," he said, bringing his glass up to his mouth to down the rest of the bitter, slightly spicy drink. He scrunched his features at the taste, shaking his head as the other laughed at him. Chanyeol beamed, feeling his cheeks twitch as he pulled the other’s hand down but kept holding onto his wrist. "Let’s cuddle, dude," he officially replied to the request.

 

The glittery alien cheered and Chanyeol joined in noisily before pulling him along as he started walking.

 

"I know the perfect cuddling spot," he said, looking at the other over his shoulder as they weaved their way out of the small but still considerable crowd in Jongdae’s house.

 

He put his empty glass down on a table when they walked past it, not paying attention to it when it tumbled over and rolled on the table. He looked away before seeing whether it fell to the ground or not and soon, they were out of the living room. There was less people on the hallway, and only a couple making out on the staircase. Jongdae was really one lucky idiot, having an actual house big enough to host parties every other week.

 

Chanyeol should steal his bedroom as revenge. He pushed the door open and pulled his cuddling partner inside, turning the lights on.

 

"Isn’t this Jongdae’s room?" he asked, laughing for no reason. Chanyeol joined in the laughter for no reason.

 

"Now it’s ours," he said, closing the door behind them and letting go of the other’s hand to step towards the bed, toe his shoes off, and jump on it.

 

The glittery alien laughed, the sound amplified with each bounce of Chanyeol’s body on the mattress. He approached, took his shoes off, and when he jumped on the bed, Chanyeol laughed even harder, their bodies wiggling towards each other from the strength of the silly, merry sounds they screeched.

 

Their arms pressed together once they calmed down and when Chanyeol felt nothing but warmth through the fabric of their clothes, it was becoming harder to call the other an alien. He thought aliens were supposed to be cold, icy, or weird. With the glitter on his eyelids, the appealing sparkles on his collarbones, and the goofiness of his cheeky smile, this person felt just like that. A person. A very good, very cute person who wiggled closer to Chanyeol and threw an arm over his tummy.

 

Chanyeol sat up at once, pulling away from the hold before it even formed.

 

"Wait," he said, looking down at the other’s frown, the wrinkles between his eyebrows lightened by the dots of shiny silver spread on the inner corner of his eyes. "This is serious business," Chanyeol explained, gesturing between them. Or trying to. He almost hit himself in the face and pulled a chortle out of his fellow cuddle lover. "I can’t cuddle you if I don’t know your name."

 

He nodded after his own words. They were some accurate, logical words. Cuddling was important and serious. He wouldn’t do it with just anyone. His body and his hoodie were two of his most precious belongings and if he was going to share them with someone, he at east had the right to know their name.

 

"Oh," the alien said, dragging himself up on the bed so he could burrow his cheek better in the pillow. Chanyeol watched the pillow hug the roundness of that cheek and felt just a little envious. He kind of wanted to sink his finger into that fluffy cheek. "My name’s Baekhyun."

 

Baekhyun. He’d never heard that name before but he was pretty sure it was a human name. Not an alien then. A human. A special human, from a race that Chanyeol had never encountered before, gifted with the highest level of loveliness on earth, dusted with fairy dust and dazzles.

 

"I’m Chanyeol," he introduced himself back, falling against the pillow and laying on his side to face Baekhyun. "It’s an honor to cuddle with you. And me. Yes, especially me," he said because it was the truth. Chanyeol was a rather amazing cuddler and he should be treated with respect for exceeding in the Hugging People department.

 

"Shut up and cuddle me already then," Baekhyun snorted, grabbing him by the chest of his hoodie and pulling him closer while moving forward at the same time. Chanyeol laughed, just because he could, and wrapped his arm around Baekhyun’s shoulder pulling him against his chest. "Wait." Baekhyun was the one to interrupt them this time, looking up at Chanyeol, looking so tiny in his arms Chanyeol couldn’t wait to just _squeeze_ him. But he hummed instead, listening to the other. "You’ll get makeup on your hoodie. Foundation and glitter."

 

"I don’t mind," Chanyeol said, already pulling the other closer but Baekhyun stubbornly kept looking up at him.

 

"Are you sure?" he asked and Chanyeol wondered how saying no to cuddles with _this_ was even possible.

 

He was just such a delicacy to the eye. With the dewiness of his skin, the smoothness of the tone, and the sunlight lounging on the highest points of his cheeks. The glitter just looked melted into his eyelids, the colors blended into each other so prettily chanyeol had no idea where the pink ended and the purple began. The shape of his eye was defined by a soft touch of red, on the very edge of his eyelids. Then purple. Then pink. Or something. Chanyeol had no idea what Baekhyun was or how he’d achieved this, but it made his eyes enchanting.

 

Maybe this was witchcraft. Didn’t witches mix herbs and weird liquids to make potions? Baekhyun mixed in colors and glitters to veil his eyes in a spell that took Chanyeol’s breath away.

 

"Yeah," he assured, breathed out more than said. "It looks very pretty. I really don’t mind at all."

 

Baekhyun smiled at him, so wide it should be ugly. It wasn’t.

 

"Great," he whispered before just diving against Chanyeol’s chest with enough strength to push him back a little and shake laughter out of the both of them at the collision. Their arms wrapped around each other, Chanyeol rested his chin on top of the silky dark of Baekhyun’s head and threw his leg over his hips. He waited a moment, just to see if Baekhyun would be uncomfortable with that but when he wasn’t pushed away, Chanyeol hooked his leg over his hip better and pulled him closer."I did it myself," Baekhyun said once they were settled and Chanyeol couldn’t see the magic on his face anymore.

 

"You did it yourself?" Chanyeol repeated, taken aback. He hadn’t really thought that someone else had done the magic on Baekhyun’s eyes but actually hearing that it was handcrafted by Baekhyun himself still came off as a surprised. "You’re so talented then. I wouldn’t be able to reproduce a quarter of your eyes," he confessed in a slur, his eyes falling closed when he felt Baekhyun nuzzling against his neck and his hand grabbing the back of his hoodie. A rush of air tickled him when Baekhyun took a long breath in and let it out against Chanyeol’s skin.

 

"Well, it’s my job. I have to be talented in it," he said, voice falling to a whisper. Chanyeol found it fitting. It wasn’t dark, the room was lit up and he could see everything properly but it still felt like they were in a shadowed, intimate place. Each other’s embrace. His fingers pressed on Baekhyun’s nape and massaged his next words out of him. "What about you? What do you do? Are you a professional cuddler or something?"

 

"My cuddles are free. I won’t charge you for them," he reassured the other. Truthfully, Chanyeol should be the one to pay Baekhyun for cuddles. These were some quality cuddles, with fingers drawing over his back and everything. He sighed in contentment and felt half of his mind shutting down. It wasn’t sudden though, it was a slow darkening of his thoughts, until he couldn’t really think about anything but how comfortable he felt in this moment. But he still had a question to reply to. Baekhyun’s chest felt firm against his own body. "I translate novels."

 

"That sounds like a very smart job," Baekhyun mumbled, words muffled puffs of warmth against Chanyeol’s neck. "What languages?"

 

"English and Korean," Chanyeol answered, hiding his words in the softness of Baekhyun’s hair. It was so fulfilling, this moment, the beat from music only muffled white noise on the other side of the door. Chanyeol felt like he could make a home out of this moment and live in it forever without fearing for his safety or comfort. His next words were muttered a silent moment of enjoyment later."I did Japanese too once. Japanese to Korean."

 

It took Baekhyun a moment to answer. Maybe two seconds, maybe two minutes. It was difficult to measure the flow of time with his eyes closed.

 

"You speak so many languages. That’s hot." His last word was broadened into a yawn, the propulsion of air at the end of it sounding so satisfied, Chanyeol’s own body reflected it by pushing him to yawn too. He snapped his mouth shut at the end of it, digging his chin into Baekhyun’s head, deep enough to extract little gems of laughter from him.

 

It was only then that Chanyeol truly heard him. Hot. He thought Chanyeol was hot. That made Chanyeol feel very hot. Wrapped in clouds and protected by the rays of a rainbow and enchanted by crystal dust.

 

The high of alcohol was turning into numbness, the energy was decreasing into completion, and the eagerness of making friends with everyone in this house was wiped away by the need to carve himself out a place in the arms holding him.

 

But he didn’t have to carve anything. The room in this hug was given to him willingly.

 

They didn’t speak after that, or perhaps they did. Chanyeol couldn’t really focus on anything but the fabric of Baekhyun’s shirt, the loving tip of his nose, and the occasional rub of his forehead against Chanyeol’s chest, against the fabric of his hoodie. They didn’t speak but Chanyeol didn’t find it awkward or uncomfortable. He was pretty sure nothing could break the feeling of comfort he was shrouded in.

 

They didn’t part away, remained wrapped in each other, bodies close, fingers exploring each other’s back and neck and lingering in spots that sung a hum of enjoyment under the massaging pressure of fingertips.

 

At some point, Chanyeol yielded to the urge and turned his back to Baekhyun. Without him having to say anything, Baekhyun wrapped his arm around his waist and pressing his forehead right bellow his nape, their legs folding together and Baekhyun’s knees pressing against the back of Chanyeol’s thighs.

 

He didn’t usually like hearing someone breathe too loudly, didn’t really like being spooned by someone smaller than him. 

 

It just fit. Being here, laying like this, feeling Baekhyun’s breath against his skin, hearing every single inhale and exhale. Making a lullaby out of it, a grounding aria that Chanyeol adjusted his body and his own breathing to, so faultlessly Chanyeol was sure he could still hear the juxtaposition of their breaths as his mind muddied into a clear sleep, was almost sure they drifted off at the same time.

 

Maybe Baekhyun’s magic wasn’t limited to spells that beautified his eyes and melted light into his skin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The magic was shaken out of him much too soon and with a groan, Chanyeol opened his eyes only to close them instantly when Jongdae’s smile was even bigger than the hangover he could already feel hammering against his head.

 

"Go away," he groaned, trying to locate Jongdae’s arms with his eyes closed to push him away.

 

He clutched what felt like a hand and squeezed until Jongdae stopped shaking him and let out something halfway between a laugh and a wail instead.

 

"I’m trying to wake you up," Jongdae argued, not convinced enough to keep Chanyeol frompulling the blanker up to his nose and turning his back to him.

 

"I don’t need to see your face first thing in the morning, it’s ew."

 

"Woah," he heard, a stretched sound that was probably exaggerated by how muddy his mind felt. He rubbed his temple against his pillow, bringing his legs up against his chest to maximize the warmth under the cover. "I lend you my bed to fuck in and that’s how you treat me?"

 

From under his flat blanket burrito, Chanyeol surged up.

 

"Huh?" was the only stupid sound his brain was able to push out of the knots strangling his head.

 

He blinked a few times, keeping his eyes narrowed because that was the only way he was able to focus on Jongdae’s scrunched up face. How much had he drank to end up in a much worse state than Jongdae?

 

"Baekhyun usually never fucks around," Jongdae said and suddenly, Chanyeol felt projected into his Study of Language classes back in college. He had no idea what Jongdae was talking about. He wasn’t even sure that was a sentence, what he’d just said. Chanyeol could only hear the echo of each word individually. "I don’t know how come the one time he chooses to fuck someone in _my_ bed it ends up being you but damn bro, get it."

 

"What," Chanyeol hissed, fumbling to turn and lay on his back. If he unstuck his ear from the pillow, perhaps he’d understand Jongdae’s gibberish better. "Get what?"

 

Jongdae didn’t answer, only sighed hard enough for his whole body to straighten and then droop back again. "Baekhyun. A good fuck. I guess. Is he?"

 

"Baekhyun?" Chanyeol repeated, separating the two syllables by a confused, short silence. Baek. Hyun. Baekhyun. Oh. Glitter, collarbones, dazzles, and fantastic big spoon-ness. Baekhyun. He snapped his head to the right and regretted it when something in his neck cracked to amplify the headache. And there was no Baekhyun next to him anymore. He pulled the blanket back up to his mouth. Suddenly, it didn’t feel like the best blanket ever anymore. "Did he leave already?"

 

Jongdae moved to sit cross legged, his knee digging into Chanyeol’s waist and his hand obnoxiously starting to tap a steady rhythm on Chanyeol’s thigh.

 

"Yeah, he left pretty early." Chanyeol crossed his arms under the blanket. He kind of wanted to cry now. Why couldn’t he get morning cuddles too? Why did people have to wake up so early? Why did hangovers make him so mushy? Why was Jongdae so bad at detecting when Chanyeol either wanted to cry or wanted him to shut up? "That psycho always wakes up so early, no matter what. He’s weird, isn’t he? Does he have weird kinks?"

 

Chanyeol groaned himself out of his wallowing. "I don’t know. We just. Cuddled." He buried his head under blanket again. He wondered if soundproof blankets existed. He should look for it, buy it, and bring it along every time he slept over at Jongdae’s house.

 

"What?" Loud despite all of Chanyeol’s effort not to hear a sound. He crossed his feet at the ankles and turned around, pushing Jongdae’s leg away with his butt. That didn’t seem to make obvious the fact that Chanyeol wanted him to go away. "You’re really the only person I know who finds a good cuddle at a party instead of a good fuck. You adorable fucker. You’re weird. You kinda suit Baekhyun then. I’m sure you’d have weird sex together. In which case, I don’t wanna know about it. Please never tell me about it."

 

Chanyeol sobbed annoyances out and pulled his blanket down. His glare didn’t go past Jongdae’s casual blinking. He had to sacrifice his blanket. He sat up, pulled the blanket up as best as he could and pulling Jongdae down with his other hand, until he fell on the bed and Chanyeol could pull the blanket over him. Ignoring the muffled protests, Chanyeol rolled Jongdae into the blanket and then threw a leg over the Jongdae burrito as they laid sideways over the mattress.

 

He had no more blanket on him but at least, the wailing whining was muffled now. He sighed in content and pressed his forehead against what he supposed what Jongdae’s head.

 

Mistake.

 

"What are you doing," Jongdae whined and the blanket wasn’t thick enough to choke that sound. It made Chanyeol’s brain screech.

 

He weakly punched the undefeated noise monster.

 

"Either you get out or you shut up and cuddle me."

 

He threw an arm around where he figured Jongdae’s shoulder should be and sighed in content. This was pretty cosy.

 

"But I hate cuddling," was the alarm that preceded Jongdae’s wiggling against him. "And you’re not really letting me leave, asshole."

 

Chanyeol sighed, opening his eyes to pull the blanket down enough for Jongdae to at least get his ruffled head out. He was _almost_ adorable like this. Still, frowning, whining in silence, and glaring at Chanyeol. Best best friend ever.

 

Chanyeol closed his eyes again and patted Jongdae’s head.

 

"Exactly. So shut up," was all he said, leg riding up higher along the burrito body.

 

Jongdae sighed loudly, minty. He had brushed his teeth, fortunately. Chanyeol snorted at the failed attempt at winning over him.

 

It took long minutes of ignoring Jongdae’s wiggling, speaking, and pokes of his finger against Chanyeol’s face once he’d freed an arm from the blanket, but before Chanyeol went crazy, he eventually settled down.

 

Now, the day was getting happy. Nothing better than a morning of cuddles, even if he had to fight with his best friend for it.

 

He decided to forgive Jongdae for the horrible awakening when he started playing with Chanyeol’s hair until he fell asleep again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first thing Chanyeol did when he reached home was think back on his cuddle buddy.

 

He didn’t remember everything from last night but he could recall how fulfilling it had felt to be held in Baekhyun’s arms. He could still see the pink and purple hues brightening Baekhyun’s gaze

when he closed his eyes. He could still feel the rub of his forehead, nose, cheek against his chest, neck, back.

 

The second thing Chanyeol did when he reached home was catch up on his translation.

 

He had a chapter due in three days. He’d already completed that chapter but he liked being early in his work, he’d feel better if he completed another chapter before submitting that one. That didn’t seem like it would be happening any time soon, however, when he got stuck at a word for a whole minute, had to look up a translation in three different dictionaries, online and on paper, before finding an accurate word in Korean.

 

He wondered why he’d never seen Baekhyun before. He wasn’t hard to miss, especially if he wore glitter on his eyelids everywhere he went. Chanyeol had the impression that he would. Part of him hoped he’d be able to confirm it on a second meeting. Then, he got stuck on an idiomatic saying and how to convert its meaning to another language. He did it after five whole minutes of raking his brain.

 

Baekhyun was the perfect partner for the cuddle monster in Chanyeol, the one that only came out when he was drunk off his mind. Or tired. Like now. He focused back on the translation. He’d been reading the same sentence over and over again. He translated it smoothly, erased half of it, rephrased it, read over it, and moved on to the next sentence.

 

Then, a few sentences later, his head refused to wrap around the aspect that was used in a part of the text. It was always the same aspects. The same tenses. The same uses of modals. Chanyeol had been doing this for years. But the clouds in his head were still thick and rained nausea in his stomach. Why couldn’t he have superpowers? The only superpower he needed was anti-hangoverism. Then he’d be able to drink every night.

 

He rolled away from his desk and got off his chair. He looked at the artificial life on his screen with a dead gaze for an insignificant moment.

 

The third thing Chanyeol did was crash on his bed, curl up next to the ball of puppy fluff already resting on the mattress. As soon as Chanyeol stopped wiggling, Toben nuzzled against his stomach for a tender minute before jumping up and out of the bed. All he left Chanyeol with was the skippy symphony of his paws clicking against the floor as he played around the bed.

 

Toben would probably be offended if Chanyeol voiced it out, but his crazy pup truly sucked at cuddling.


	2. Chapter 2

Chanyeol wondered if aliens ever danced up there, in space.

 

He wondered if perhaps he was an alien. Jongdae had said so earlier. Between a martini and a jack and coke. Or was it a shot of something else? He didn’t remember. But Jongdae had said he danced like an alien. Chanyeol couldn’t believe his alien family had dropped him down from space and never came back to get him again. Aliens were cruel. Perhaps he was better off as a human. Yes, starting from this exact moment, Chanyeol was human. No more alien business for him.

 

Humans had pretty good music anyway. He was sure aliens had some unidentifiable beat they just wiggled to. This was better. Chanyeol had no idea what this song was called but he loved it and so did the woman who danced in front of him. She danced like Chanyeol. He knew because Jongdae always imitated his way of dancing and unless this girl was imitating Chanyeol, she had a similar dancing style to his.

 

The best dancing style. Chanyeol raised his hands and wiggled his arms around, twirling around and grinning at the woman who did the same, her mouth wide open. Perhaps a weird way of communicating, perhaps a laugh. He pumped his hands to the left in rhythm with the beat’s boisterous echo in his chest, wiggled his hips to the opposite side. He did the same thing to the opposite side. Or was it to the same side? Opposite side? Same side?

 

The woman threw her mouth open again. Chanyeol feared her face would rip apart. He felt someone colliding against his side but paid no mind to it. They were in a club. Clubs were made for people to collide into other people and perhaps stick to them. Chanyeol didn’t really feel like sticking to anyone tonight. Junmyeon had stuck to him for a while before disappearing with one of his colleagues, maybe an hour ago, maybe a night ago. He wasn’t sure who had decided to hold a party in a club, everyone was scattered around, it was kind of stupid.

 

His dance partner glided closer to him and that was weird. Chanyeol was pretty sure he didn’t want anyone to stick to him so that meant no one should stick to him. He needed a drink. Perhaps he should order something with a weird name.

 

Perhaps this woman was an alien. Her hand cascaded down Chanyeol’s chest in a numbing touch. Chanyeol didn’t want to be touched. She was touching him. That meant she was an alien. She was sent down here by the alien family that had kicked him out of their UFO twenty eight years ago. She was going to drag him back up to Pluto. But Pluto wasn’t a planet anymore. Chanyeol shouldn’t go there. He needed to look very convincingly human.

 

Another rip through the woman’s face when Chanyeol jumped up and down and threw his head from one side to the other as the song reached its tenth climax. Luckily for him, his head didn’t dislocate from his body. Although, this place probably missed a disco ball.

 

Chanyeol would make one hell of a disco ball.

 

Someone laughed behind him and Chanyeol jumped around in a very stylish, very detailed, very sophisticated dance move that consisted in him crossing his legs at the ankles. He intended to twirl right back around by unraveling his legs but instead, he stumbled forward.

 

Alien hands caught him by the waist. Not alien hands. Very strong, very good-at-holding-people hands. Baekhyun hands. He wasn’t an alien. Yes. Chanyeol remembered.

 

Baekhyun let go of him, mouth opening into a sound muted by the music. It wasn’t a rip. Just a hole. Very wide. Chanyeol should maybe jump inside and see how deep it was.

 

"Are you laughing at my dancing?" someone asked and it was only when Chanyeol pried his gaze away from the light reflecting on the glossiness of Baekhyun’s lower lip that he noticed it was his own voice. He also noticed that that lower lip looked very soft under the red laser blasted through the club, flickering along to the beat. So soft. A spaceship could land there with no complications or threat to the safety of its passenger.

 

Baekhyun frowned and jolted his head closer to him. Whispery laughter burst out of them both when their noses collided. No pain. Chanyeol was still laughing when his hand landed on Baekhyun’s shoulder. He wondered if his touch was as sturdy as Baekhyun’s hold on his waist. Baekhyun wasn’t an alien, Chanyeol had no objections to his hands on his body.

 

He opened his eyes wide in attempt to see beyond the alcohol and the night of the party to find Baekhyun’s ear.

 

He trailed his hand up Baekhyun’s neck and flicked a finger over his earlobe. There. The ear. Baekhyun’s shoulders jolted and he recoiled back, face scrunched like laughing paper. Chanyeol guided his lips towards his own hand and screamed into Baekhyun’s ear to make sure he was heard this time.

 

"My dance always makes people laugh, that’s why I do it," he informed the other. It was important for everyone to know that Chanyeol liked making people laugh.

 

If Baekhyun ever needed some happy-ing, he should come and find Chanyeol. He wouldn’t charge him. Or perhaps he would. In cuddles. Baekhyun’s hands felt snug around him. Chanyeol was perhaps a tiny little bead hiding in the hollow of Baekhyun fist.

 

He pulled back once he’d shared the information andlooked at Baekhyun. Glimmers. He blinked. He couldn’t see the color but there was makeup on Baekhyun’s eyelids. Or no makeup. Stardust. These hands felt strong enough to crush stars. These eyes looked majestic enough to be crowned with astral jewels.

 

Baekhyun’s eyes narrowed, his mouth widened. He heard a peak of sound falling from his mouth when the music crouched down for a beat and then jumped back up into deafeningly nice noise when Baekhyun moved his face closer to his.

 

Their cheeks brushed. Cushy. Baekhyun’s hands felt delicate enough to weave cotton into skin.

 

"Weirdly, seeing you dance makes me happy," Baekhyun said, or Chanyeol thought Baekhyun said. Some words had to be guessed, he couldn’t hear them.

 

Chanyeol’s cheeks felt like rocks when he smiled. He was careful not to harm the cotton of Baekhyun’s cheeks when he brought himself towards his ear.

 

"Hearing that you’re happy makes me happy."

 

Baekhyun was projected closer to him. Chanyeol stumbled back but neither of them fell. Or maybe Chanyeol fell. He became a pillow Baekhyun’s arms were hugging. Chanyeol hoped he was the world’s best pillow.

 

"Do you know what else makes me happy?" Baekhyun asked and they weren’t dancing, they were perhaps the only two people standing in a crowd of squirming, waving, jumping bodies.

 

Chanyeol and Baekhyun were aliens. Chanyeol had an alien friend who was good at cuddling. He’d thought about their cuddling right this morning, when Junmyeon’s had asked him if he wanted to go out with him and a few of his friends. Chanyeol had summoned the world’s best cuddles with his thoughts alone. Chanyeol was powerful.

 

So, he thought, he would find the answer to Baekhyun’s question. He pursed his lips and hummed until Baekhyun urged him with a knock of his forehead against his collarbones. Chanyeol retaliated by massaging his shoulders.

 

"The fact that you’re happy?" he chanced when Baekhyun threw his head back, closed his eyes, and melted against him. Chanyeol stopped the massaging but kept his hands on Baekhyun’s silky shoulders. Blue silky shoulders, he thought. Blue or green or red silk didn’t matter, Chanyeol didn’t want to melt Baekhyun. He’d never seen him again then.

 

"No," Baekhyun said, loudly and stretched enough for Chanyeol to hear it with no problem. His lower lip pouted and sulked. Chanyeol’s lower lip was usually always right. Why wasn’t it right this time? Baekhyun let go of his waist with one hand and patted his chest instead. "You’re wearing the cuddly hoodie again."

 

Chanyeol looked down at himself but before he could see anything, Baekhyun started rubbing his cheek against his chest. It tickled Chanyeol but he didn’t move, his double chin felt very comfortable as he looked down. He hoped his chest was as comfortable to Baekhyun as the fat under Chanyeol’s chin was to him.

 

To optimize the comfort, Chanyeol wrapped his hoodie-d arms around Baekhyun’s shoulders and squeezed.

 

"Yes. I like this hoodie," he proudly screamed for the entire world to hear.

 

Only Baekhyun looked up at him, half of his chin still cuddling his chest. That was enough for Chanyeol.

 

"I like this hoodie too. It’s mine now. It’s my hoodie."

 

He plastered his forehead right bellow the collar again and Chanyeol took a moment to process his words. Then, he pulled away to look at Baekhyun who followed the backward bend of Chanyeol’s upper body and remained hidden against the hoodie.

 

"What? No," he shook his head, dizzying himself and gripping Baekhyun’s shoulders tighter. He didn’t want to part from his hoodie. Concern made its way out of his dizzy mind. "It’s my favorite hoodie, do you really want me to give it to you?"

 

Baekhyun’s lower lash line scintillated when he grimaced at him, lower lip jutted out as he gave Chanyeol a reproachful gaze from under his lashes.

 

"No, silly," he said, knocking on Chanyeol’s chest with his knuckles and laughing. Chanyeol tilted his head. "I just mean this hoodie is mine. When you’re wearing it you’re mine. It’s mine. Which means the cuddles are mine. This is the Cuddling With Baekhyunnie Hoodie. Mine. Which means we should cuddle again!"

 

"Oh," Chanyeol said, staring at Baekhyun. He had stopped talking but Chanyeol was still processing his words. Hoodie. Mine. Cuddling with Baekhyunnie. He felt his face crumbling into a simper. "Yes!" He rose to the tip of his toes and fell back down. Baekhyun wanted to cuddle with him. Chanyeol wanted to cuddle with Baekhyun. That sounded just like the perfect recipe for happiness. Like two ingredients made to seamlessly blend into the fuzziest, softest cupcake. "Let’s cuddle again!"

 

He pulled Baekhyun into him again, feeling him hug his waist and slot his head under his chin. Chanyeol rested on top of his head, carefully. He didn’t want to puncture a hole through that cute little pillowy head.

 

They said nothing. The music was already speaking loudly enough in their stead. People were bumping against them, someone danced behind Chanyeol before giving up at the lack of response. Chanyeol was Baekhyun’s now. The hoodie was Baekhyun’s and Chanyeol was Baekhyun’s and Chanyeol was a loyal hoodie. He wouldn’t cuddle anyone else but Baekhyun tonight.

 

He’d never really cuddled anyone while standing before, never really hugged anyone for more than the acceptable, conventionally short amount of time. But this was now Chanyeol’s default mode of cuddling. Standing, swaying slowly to altering music in a crowd full of little parties, with Baekhyun, closing his eyes and feeling him breathe against his neck, against his collarbones. Smiling when he rubbed Chanyeol’s back, returning it by tickling the top of his head with his chin. Chanyeol couldn’t hear Baekhyun’s laugh, couldn’t see it either, but it was beautiful.

 

Perhaps Baekhyun was wearing the hoodie along with him. Perhaps they were hugging each other while Chanyeol’s hoodie tucked itself over them and joined in the hug, enveloping them in appeasement.

 

Appeasement until Baekhyun pulled away, forcing Chanyeol to blink his eyes open into a whine.

 

Two fingers kissed his cheek into a tender pinch.

 

"Sleepy?" Baekhyun asked. A scream had never sounded like a lullaby before. Maybe it was because the song dancing around them had changed. Chanyeol didn’t recognize it, hadn’t even noticed the change. He had no idea how long they’d been holding each other for. Chanyeol wasn’t sure if he’d fallen asleep but it had been the best nap of his life, nuzzled into Baekhyun’s hair.

 

He nodded, closing his eyes, letting his cheek drop into Baekhyun’s hand and cling to the tenderness of his palm.

 

A hand grabbed his and Chanyeol’s feet dragged on the ground, eyes fluttering in defense against the shifting lights.

 

Chanyeol was pushed down into a bed. He opened his eyes. Not a bed, just a couch. Not a couch, just the thingy you sat on in clubs. What was that called again?

 

"We can cuddle and rest better here," Baekhyun said, leaned close to him.

 

Baekhyun was so so nice. He wanted to keep cuddling and Chanyeol was sleepy but that was okay. He smiled at him the way he thought he’d smile at the cute puppy videos all over his Instagram feed. It worked. Baekhyun plopped down next to him. He scrunched his face and held onto his knee. Chanyeol frowned. He must’ve hit it against the table.

 

He rubbed his palm over it. If he had superpowers, he’d be able to absorb the pain. Maybe he had super powers. He should continue. Baekhyun swayed towards him and rested his cheek on his shoulder. Maybe Chanyeol did have powers. Cuddle attraction powers. The best powers.

 

He closed his eyes and let his cheek rest against Baekhyun’s hair. A blanket around his waist. Baekhyun’s arm. He kept his hand on his knee, not rubbing but just laying there. He was wearing ripped jeans. Baekhyun’s knee shouldn’t catch a cold. Chanyeol would blanket it from the cold.

 

When Chanyeol opened his eyes again, drowsy and asleep, Baekhyun wasn’t resting against him anymore. Someone was holding onto his arm and walking him away from Chanyeol, into the crowd.

 

Sad. Chanyeol was sad. He was having the best nap of his life. Someone had just ripped his blanket away from him and he hadn’t even noticed, hadn’t even held onto it. He was sad. He looked up at Jongdae and wasn’t sad anymore when his lovely best friend ruffled his hair.

 

He stood up and caught Jongdae in a hug. Or Jongdae caught him in a hug.

 

Soon, it was his bed that caught him. Perhaps Jongdae had turned into his bed.

 

Or not. Jongdae just pulled the blanket over his feet to make sure they wouldn’t get cold. From under the blanket, Chanyeol stretched a hand and wailed for cuddles. He was a dying man. He just needed a drop of cuddle. Then, he’d survive.

 

But Jongdae was merciless, he kept all the cuddles to himself, turned the lights off, and closed the door.

 

Chanyeol pouted into his dreams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A week later, Chanyeol forgave Jongdae for not cuddling him that night.

 

Not that he’d sulked or ignored him the whole time,. Chanyeol probably wouldn’t survive a day without sending at least one funny meme to Jongdae, but it was only when Jongdae asked him to come over and eat the food his mom had just brought in that he decided to let the remorse go.

 

The remorse came back in full force when he got off his car, closed the door, turned around, and his gaze met Baekhyun’s. He was closing the door of Jongdae’s house behind him and let go of the handle once done. Chanyeol’s hand remained on the surface of his car door, his arm stretched behind him as he watched Baekhyun step away from the house.

 

He wasn’t wearing makeup. Or perhaps he was, but it was nothing like the glitter and the colors Chanyeol was used to seeing on him. For some reason, Chanyeol felt really awkward. He should be happy to realize that Baekhyun wasn’t an imaginary drunk friend he’d created all on his own. Baekhyun was a real, living, breathing human being who excelled in the art of cuddling.

 

He let go of his car and walked towards the door. They didn’t look at each other as they advanced towards each other. This was weird, terribly weird. Chanyeol had never interacted with Baekhyun when sober, had never even seen him when sober. And Chanyeol knew he was pretty embarrassing when drunk off his mind, very clingy and whiny and he sure as hell didn’t really feel like confronting that side of him with someone he’d only met twice before. While drunk.

 

They passed by each other and Baekhyun nodded at him with a smile, a greeting that Chanyeol returned a beat too late. No make up. Same exact amount of cuteness all over that face. Maybe even more.

 

He relaxed once they walked past each other and he couldn’t see Baekhyun anymore. He hadn’t been ready for this. He should’ve been warned. He rang the doorbell when he heard a car door closing behind him.

 

The door opened and Chanyeol frowned at Jongdae’s welcoming smile and the very humble and playful _welcome to Master Jongdae’s home_ that accompanied it. Chanyeol was pretty sure Jongdae had a secretary or maid kink. He would prove it by catching him on the act one day. Well, hopefully not literally.

 

"Why was he here?" was the first thing he asked and Jongdae dropped the act with a roll of his eyes and stepped back to let him inside.

 

"Who did you see that made you all grumpy and not cute again?" he questioned, closing the door as Chanyeol took his shoes off.

 

"Baekhyun," he threw over his shoulder as he headed to the living room. "Why was he here?"

 

Granted Jongdae’s position as a manager in an entertainment company gave him a bunch of friends that Chanyeol didn’t know, he had no idea he was close enough to Baekhyun to actually allow him to come over to his house without it being for a crowded party.

 

"Oh, Baekhyun," Jongdae repeated in a drawl, plopping down on his couch, the shrug of his shoulders almost bigger than his smile. "Why didn’t you ask him yourself if you ran into him?"

 

Chanyeol sat down next to him and mimicked his best friend’s shrug.

 

"I don’t know, we don’t really talk," he justified himself, getting his phone out of his pocket and leaning to put it on the coffee table.

 

"You spent two entire nights cuddling and you don’t talk?"

 

Chanyeol frowned at the raised eyebrow Jongdae gave him.

 

"We were drunk," he deadpanned, struggling to take his jacket off. Jongdae tugged on the problematic sleeve to help him free his arm. "That doesn’t count."

 

"So you wouldn’t cuddle him sober?" Jongdae asked, reaching towards Chanyeol’s shirt. He looked down to see him plucking a dog hair out of the fabric before letting it drop on the floor.

 

"Uh," Chanyeol hummed for a moment before shaking his head without thinking about it much. "I don’t know. We’re not friends. I’d have no reason to."

 

"So you have a reason to cuddle him when you’re drunk?"

 

"Yes," Chanyeol sighed in exasperation, side eyeing the other. "I’m very cuddly."

 

Jongdae snorted and Chanyeol knew him enough to tell he found his answer stupid. Chanyeol found it stupid too. That didn’t mean he didn’t stand behind that answer. He really didn’t see himself holding a conversation with Baekhyun when there was no alcohol involved.

 

"I know you are and I hate it so much," Jongdae answered and out of spite, Chanyeol opened his arms wide and tilted towards him to engulf him in a hug. Jongdae managed to put his bare feet between them as protection at the last moment. "Don’t forget you’re here to be fed. I will kick you out of my house and leave you to starve in the streets if you hug me."

 

Chanyeol dropped his arms on his lap and deflated, keeping himself away from the devil. Anyone who didn’t like hugging and cuddling was probably the devil. How had he ended up best friends with the devil? Damn that one party Jongdae had thrown in college and damn Chanyeol who found him so tiny and cute and had kept contact with him afterwards. Damn them both for bounding through alcohol at first and then concluding that they were probably each other’s platonic soulmates.

 

Chanyeol started to seriously doubt it when Jongdae reached towards him and patted his head with a satisfied smile.

 

"Good boy," he said, haughtiness gathering into goo in his voice.

 

Chanyeol turned it into a yelp by attempting to bite his wrist and earning a tap against his ear.

 

He made sure to eat exactly half of all the food Jongdae offered him as revenge. Jongdae only offered him more to eat. Jongdae was just too damn kind, what a stupid idiot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Oh god, you’re finally here."

 

Before he could even process that sentence, Chanyeol found himself with an armful of red Baekhyun. Arms wrapped around his waist and a face mushed against his chest before he unveiled himself to look up at him. It wasn’t a red Baekhyun. His cheeks were rubified by the familiar smell of alcohol that didn’t even make Chanyeol flinch anymore but his eyes were magnified by a sunset. Orange, red, yellow, even a little bit of purple on his eyelids. No glitter but the same amount of brilliance.

 

Chanyeol had thought Baekhyun was pretty to him only because alcohol blurred his mind whenever they met but he hadn’t even taken a single sip yet and his eyes already refused to look away from the suns on each of Baekhyun’s slow blinks. He hoped it wouldn’t burn him, blind him. Perhaps getting drunk off the smell of alcohol was possible, Chanyeol found himself thinking that it would be worth it. Burning.

 

"You’re finally here," someone echoed in front of him and Chanyeol blinked, looking away from Baekhyun.

 

Junmyeon was standing there, hands hanging onto his waist as he watched them. He wasn’t drunk. Contrary to Jongdae, he thought that a party’s host should always remain sober and make sure all the guests were having fun.

 

"You’ve been waiting for me?" he asked, surprised. He’d told Junmyeon that he’d arrive a little late, he had a phone call with his editor scheduled only an hour ago and he couldn’t have have ditched that for a party.

 

He looked down at Baekhyun when he heard him sigh. Baekhyun moved from his collarbone to the right instead, mushing his cheek against Chanyeol’s shoulder. It wasn’t the Cuddling With Baekhyun hoodie that he was wearing. Chanyeol bit his lower lip. This was ridiculous. Weirdly, ridiculously cute.

 

"Not me," Junmyeon laughed, pointing at Baekhyun with a sway of his hand. It didn’t look exasperated, the lingering smile suggested fondness. "He’s been standing there and opening the door to people ever since he got drunk."

 

Chanyeol looked down at Baekhyun, settling in his gaze, watching him nod fervently in agreement to Junmyeon’s words. Cute. Too cute. He was too sober for this. Baekhyun was just as cute, just as nice to cuddle when Chanyeol looked at him with a lucid eye.

 

"Well, I guess I’ll take it from here," he said to Junmyeon who huffed a laugh out, muted by the music booming through the house.

 

He looked down when he felt a squeeze around his waist. Baekhyun was frowning, looking up at him, and his lips looked sugary. Puffy, pink, pouty. Glazed with a sheen of wetness. Gloss. He was wearing gloss and it gave his lips an illusion of sweetness. If he were drunk, Chanyeol would’ve perhaps bit into them. But he wasn’t drunk and he hummed, the sound breaking in his throat.

 

"Not only are you late but you’re also talking to Junmyeon instead of me?" Baekhyun grumbled, chin moving against Chanyeol’s chest with each word.

 

Chanyeol laughed and didn’t look away from him again. They truly weren’t close enough for this situation. He didn’t mind. Cuddles were cuddles. Cuddles were Baekhyun were always pleasant, even now.

 

He finally brought his arms up around Baekhyun to squeeze him back, swaying him from side to side for a moment.

 

"Did you wait for me a lot?" he asked, trying his hardest not to coo at Baekhyun the same way he’d coo at Toben. He wouldn’t betray his pup like that.

 

"Yes," Baekhyun replied without wasting any time, letting Chanyeol lull his body but not standing limp in his hold. He was still hugging him despite the accusation melted on his lips. "You need to learn about punctuality. This party started _two_ hours ago. So I missed _two_ hours of cuddle."

 

And Chanyeol just couldn’t keep it in. "So cute," he blurted out, one of his hands letting go of Baekhyun to rise and ruffled his hair instead. He’d hide it from Toben. It would be okay.

 

Baekhyun perked up. "That’s why you should cuddle me!"

 

He pulled away and Chanyeol saw a hint of a glow on the inner corner of his eye before he turned around, grabbed his hand, and dragged him into the house. He hadn’t even noticed he’d still been standing on the threshold.

 

Junmyeon was nowhere to be seen anymore and Baekhyun pulled him into the living room, gripped his hand tighter as they weaved through the dispersed crowd. Chanyeol figured they were heading towards the balcony and he wordlessly let Baekhyun guide him towards the glass doors. He waved to a few people he recognized but Baekhyun didn’t stop to allow him to strike up any conversation until they were in front of the door and only then did Chanyeol look back at him. He wouldn’t be able to open the door. Chanyeol knew because he’d never been able to open that door. He couldn’t figure out the trick to open it, no matter how many times Junmyeon showed him.

 

Baekhyun reached for the handle, did something magical, and pulled the door open.

 

The rush of air hitting his face stunned him. Baekhyun’s hand was warm in his as he pulled him out.

 

"We should sit on the floor," Baekhyun said, gesturing in front of him vaguely.

 

They didn’t have much of a choice. Junmyeon’s balcony was basically empty, big enough to be decorated with at least a tiny table and seats, but still empty. The door closed behind them on its own as they slid down to sit, back to the wall and face at the mercy of the night breeze. Baekhyun wordlessly pressed his head against his shoulder, his thigh against his. Chanyeol turned to look at him with an amused smile, silent as he watched him rub his forehead against the tip of his shoulder and groan a little before grabbing Chanyeol’s arm and raising it. He slid under it and rested his head against his chest instead. Chanyeol wondered if he should be offended that his shoulder was too bony for Baekhyun. He wasn’t. Thanks to his bony shoulder, he got to properly hug a cute boy who was curled up against him.

 

He’d came here for the alcohol and he hadn’t even touched a single glass yet but he didn’t really have any regret. Watching Baekhyun drunkenly point around them was enough.

 

"This balcony sucks," he announced, huffing as he dropped his hand again. It landed on Chanyeol’s thigh.

 

A cute boy’s hand was on his thigh. Chanyeol should panic, he should definitely panic but somehow, he couldn’t feel anything but at peace with Baekhyun’s head tickling his chin again. It was a sensation he’d gotten used to after only three occurrences of it. Baekhyun made it really easy to get used to him.

 

"Why?" he asked, for his own entertainment.

 

"It just sucks," Baekhyun reaffirmed and Chanyeol hummed, wrapping his arm tighter around him, fitting the bony edge of his shoulder into his palm. "The floor is cold, first of all. It’s also ugly. Why couldn’t he put a carpet?"

 

"You think putting a carpet on the balcony would make it prettier?" he asked with a snort.

 

Baekhyun was visibly too drunk to notice the mockery in his voice. He nodded, bumping his head against Chanyeol’s chin. He winced but said nothing, it wasn’t as painful as it was amusing.

 

"Well, not a carpet. A rug. Like. A red one."

 

"You want a red rug on the balcony?"

 

"Yes," Baekhyun said and before he could nod again, Chanyeol blocked his head by properly resting his chin on it. "And flowers. Flowers would save this place, maybe. You know those angsty balconies on Instagram?" Chanyeol hummed to indicate him to continue and closed his eyes. The slur of Baekhyun’s voice made it melodious and slow, so pleasant to listen to. "Wait. Not angsty. Vintage. But wait. Copying instagram pics is unoriginal. Junmyeon should just put a rug here and then plant the flowers on the rug."

 

Chanyeol repressed his laughter, huffing it out and puffing his chest. "You want flowers to grow out of the rug?"

 

"No, silly. That can’t happen, obviously," Baekhyun snorted, pulling away to look up at him. His skin was honeyed up by the glow of the living room behind them. Only half of his lips were glistening now. He supposed the other half of the gloss was somewhere on Chanyeol’s sweater. It was okay. He didn’t like this sweater that much. Baekhyun’s trace on it would probably make it nicer.

 

"What do you want then?" Chanyeol asked him, to humor him.

 

Baekhyun hummed. A long, mellifluous note. Perhaps that was where he’d lost the glaze of his lips. He was still bright though. On the tip of his nose, there was a round glow, golden. It looked like the same shade as what he had on the inner corners of his eyes. But it probably wasn’t because who would apply eyeshadow on the tip of their nose? Maybe it was just the natural shine of Baekhyun’s skin, fueled by the ardency of his loveliness.

 

He rested his head on Chanyeol’s chest again, stealing the beauty from his eyes.

 

"I want cucumbers to die," he sighed, bursting laughter out of Chanyeol. So Baekhyun didn’t like cucumbers, he figured. Cute. "And I want to apply sunscreen," he mumbled, legs sliding against Chanyeol, one of his knees resting on top of Chanyeol’s thigh.

 

"Sunscreen?" he repeated, a little dazed. He wasn’t used to being tangled with someone so much while his brain functioned correctly. Or rather, he wasn’t used to being closely tangled while sober with someone he found attractive.

 

Jongdae wasn’t attractive to him and he rarely even hugged Chanyeol. Junmyeon was handsome, objectively, and liked to take naps while cuddling but there was not a hint of attraction for him in Chanyeol. Every attractive people he met were often as drunk as Chanyeol was.

 

"You should always apply sunscreen," Baekhyun said, one of his fingers tapping on Chanyeol’s tummy with each of his words.

 

Someone laughed in the living room, the sound discernible amidst the drowned out bass of the music.

 

"I don’t like sunscreen." He pursed his lips, pressed them together. They were a little cold, just like his nose. He pronounced his next words into Baekhyun’s hair. "I never wear it. It makes my skin all white and sticky and weird."

 

Baekhyun’s head whipped away from him so quickly Chanyeol bumped the back of his head against the window in an attempt to save it from a collision with Baekhyun’s head.

 

"What do you mean you don’t wear sunscreen?!" he asked, voice loud, eyes wide, expression wild.

 

Chanyeol bit his lower lip. "Uh, I just don’t?"

 

He wasn’t sure whether that was the right answer or not when Baekhyun went on a whole speech about the blessing that sunscreen was to humankind and its importance. He settled on it being the right answer. There was just something about Baekhyun’s voice that was grounding and clingy to the ears, with its intonations, the stress on certain words, even just the core sound of it. Even if he was telling Chanyeol that he would probably die if he didn’t wear sunscreen, basing that argument on the example of some guy who’d gotten sunburnt for three whole months and then grew some kind of mutant cancer or mutant skin or something along those lines.

 

Baekhyun spoke too quickly for him to truly understand anything and Chanyeol thought that he was probably safer since he wasn’t crazy enough to go out into the sun for three months straight and collect burns on his skin. But sunscreen seemed to be holy for Baekhyun, he could see it in how long he spoke about it and on how determined his face looked as he did so, whenever he looked up at Chanyeol to make sure he was following. Cute. Terribly cute. Worthy-of-putting-sunscreen-on-every-day kind of cute.

 

"You’re so good at makeup," Chanyeol couldn’t help but say after a moment of silence that followed Chanyeol’s promise to wear sunscreen more often. It was difficult to say not to the very convincing lips Baekhyun had.

 

"I’m glad you think so, it kinda is my job, after all," Baekhyun laughed against his neck, where he was pressing his nose to warm it up after complaining about it earlier.

 

That sounded familiar. They might have talked about it before, when Chanyeol was drunk.

 

"Yeah," he said, elongating the sound with unsureness. "But you’re still very good at it. And you look very beautiful with it."

 

Baekhyun rubbed tickles into his skin with the tip of his nose. A drunken giggle rubbed tickles somewhere in Chanyeol’s stomach.

 

"Thank you," Baekhyun whispered and Chanyeol regretted being unable to see his face. He wanted to see if he could match this tone to shyness. But it was okay, he liked holding Baekhyun against him.

 

He rubbed his shoulder with his palm and said nothing else, closing his eyes and resting his head back against the wall. His nose was starting to feel cold. He continued rubbing warmth into Baekhyun’s shoulder, until Baekhyun started wiggling against him, knee bumping against Chanyeol’s thigh, forehead sliding up to his collarbones, down to his chest, cheek mushing against his neck, somehow.

 

Chanyeol said nothing, curiously letting him do whatever it was that he was trying to do. All the rubbing and squirming was amusing _and_ warmed him up a little. Perfect combo.

 

"Can I sit on your lap?"

 

His eyes snapped open and he looked down, twin sunsets catching him on Baekhyun’s eyelids. A blink, two blinks, and Chanyeol was sure he had heard correctly.

 

"Uh." Another stupid sound. Baekhyun flustered him easily. It was the sunsets and the glossy lips. Half glossy lips. Chanyeol liked his donuts both glazed and not glazed. He bit into his lips. He was too sober to have these weird, stupid thoughts. "Sure," he agreed with a shrug of one shoulder.

 

Baekhyun beamed at him and instantly moved to settle on Chanyeol’s lap, sitting sideways. Chanyeol’s hands found his waist again when Baekhyun’s head found his chest again.

 

"This is better," he sighed, rubbing his temple against Chanyeol’s collarbone before groaning and moving to the left, probably seeking for a more comfortable spot to do it on.

 

Chanyeol’s bite on his own lip wasn’t strong enough to repress his grin. He rubbed his hand up and down Baekhyun’s side and enjoyed the weight of his body on his lap, the warmth of him against his chest. A stranger shouldn’t be so comfortable to be with.

 

"Can you put some music on?" he asked then and silently, Chanyeol got his phone out of his pocket, careful not to disturb Baekhyun too much. He sounded loose and numbed at the same time, drowsy.

 

He opened up his ballads playlist and as the first notes of a willowy beat billowed out of the device, he closed his eyes and heard Baekhyun hum, in rhythm. He knew the song. It made Chanyeol’s lips tremble with merriment and his hand continue rubbing Baekhyun’s side.

 

Chanyeol didn’t know how much time passed like that. After a while, time darkened for him and when he opened his eyes again, someone was prying Baekhyun away from him.

 

Junmyeon’s shoulder was bony, his lips weren’t glossy, and the tip of his nose was bland whenChanyeol rested against him and watched someone pull Baekhyun out of the door. It wasn’t comfortable.

 

Even drunk, on alcohol or sleep, Chanyeol would now make the difference between Baekhyun and everyone else.


	3. Chapter 3

Vomit. Puke. Throw up. Barf. Belch.

 

There was just too many synonyms to choose from and Chanyeol stared at his little list with a frown. He didn’t know which one to use. Which one would sound better. Which one would be closer to what the author originally meant in his sentence. Why was such a disgusting word so important to this sentence?

 

He hummed, stared, hummed, checked the definitions in the dictionary again, checked the definition of the original Korean word again, and settled on using the word _spit_ instead. Overall, it was a word that matched the meaning and image portrayed in this text the best.

 

He continued translating, erasing, despising this shitty novel, translating it, erasing a sentence, wishing he could just rewrite the novel entirely, translating, checking definitions, translating until he felt something tugging on the leg of his sweatpants and tapping on his foot. He carefully rolled his chair away from the desk and looked down at his cute little ball of furry dynamite.

 

"What’s wrong, buddy?" he asked Toben who silently put his paws up higher up Chanyeol’s leg. He snorted and leaned down. "Oh, do you want me to take you into my arms, Your Highness?" he asked him, scratching behind his tiny ear with a finger and then adding three more digits.

 

Toben nuzzled against his palm, licking it until Chanyeol laughed and tried grabbing him. Before he could hold the pup properly and lift him, Toben slipped out of his hold.

 

"Of course you don’t want me to hold you, that would’ve been so weird and unusual," he huffed, leaning back into his seat and watching the puppy momentarily get distracted by the chair’s foot.

 

He glanced back at his screen. He was halfway through the chapter and it was going pretty smoothly so far. Chanyeol hadn’t felt like ripping his head out even once. That was a success. He could do a little more and then finish up the chapter in three days at most. Once Toben was away from the chair, he rolled back closer to his desk. As soon as he rested his fingers on the keyboard, Toben’s paws started clicking around quickly and Chanyeol looked down at him when he tried jumping up his legs again.

 

Alright, maybe His Highness Toben wouldn’t let him work more tonight. He mindlessly watched him wiggle around and jump around more, almost numbed by the black of his fur after having stared at the light of his computer screen for a major part of his day. It was only when Toben started nibbling on his foot and groaning that Chanyeol got a grip of his disintegrating brain and shook his head.

 

He glanced at the time on the corner of his screen and rubbed a hand over his face, tugging at his nose. It was past 5pm. He hadn’t let Toben out in much too long. He didn’t even remember if he’d let him out at all today. Maybe in the morning. Or was that yesterday? He didn’t remember and he hated himself a little.

 

Leaning back down, he cupped the puppy’s face and nuzzled his nose against his snout.

 

"Sorry, buddy. I was an asshole today, wasn’t I?" he said, scratching his cheeks and closing his eyes. "Is that a reason to eat my foot, though? It kinda is. But still, please don’t eat my foot, alright?" he asked when Toben nosed against his chin. He laughed and let go of him. "Come on, we’re gonna go on a long walk so you can just run around like the cute crazy guy that you are. You’ll forgive me if we stay out longer than usual, right?"

 

Toben stared at him before following once Chanyeol stood up to go look out of the window. It was sunny today, no clouds in the sky for the first time the whole week. Chanyeol went to the bathroom to quickly wash up and get a grip of himself. He ran a hand through his hair and grimaced at his dark circles before tugging on his cheek.

 

He’d never seen dark circles on Baekhyun. He wondered if he just naturally had no dark circles or if he used some makeup magic to cover them up. He’d been wondering a lot of things about Baekhyun since that last party, more than a week ago. Toben clicked his way into the bathroom, running around and jumping up to reach the towel hung next to the sink. Chanyeol snorted at his own reflection and pulled the drawer open. There was a bottle of sunscreen inside that had been there for a long time. He figured sunscreen didn’t expire. Or at least, he hoped so.

 

He applied a small amount of it, wincing at the white on his cheeks and aggressively rubbing it until the skin was a little red. It didn’t even cover up his dark circles. How useless. It only left his forehead with a glistening sheen.

 

He dumped the bottle back into the drawer and called out to Toben to follow him.

 

They walked a little further than usual today, the weather was nice and Chanyeol really did want to make it up to his bestest friend. His mere best friend Jongdae wished he was as adorable as Toben. Chanyeol wished Toben was as calm as Jongdae, especially whenever he suddenly started running, dragging Chanyeol along by the leash, and abruptly stopped, making Chanyeol stop in urgency to avoid tugging on the leash too harshly and hurting him. Toben was his bestest friend but Chanyeol was pretty sure he was Toben’s servant.

 

Chanyeol was also pretty sure he was hallucinating from the effects of expired milky sunscreen when they walked into a park and he saw Baekhyun a few feet away from them, walking a corgi.

 

He was wearing a big hoodie and holding onto his phone, muttering something to his dog. It was Baekhyun. It wasn’t a hallucination. Going through a list of synonyms of the word ‘puke’ hadn’t made Chanyeol go mad. It really was Baekhyun walking his dog in the same park as him. Totally sober. Chanyeol was totally sober and he had no idea why Baekhyun just looked like the perfect pillow in that big pastel pink hoodie he was wearing.

 

Chanyeol snapped out of it when Toben started tugging on his leash with a small bark to get him to walk again. He looked down at him, apologized, and started walking. When he looked up, Baekhyun was looking towards them, probably having heard Toben. Chanyeol swallowed and almost tripped when Toben decided that they should stop walking so he could sniff on a lump of grass.

 

Baekhyun was walking towards them. Chanyeol should probably start panicking. He should probably decide whether he wanted to talk to Baekhyun or not. They had barely even looked at each other when they’d seen each other in front of Jongdae’s house. But this was different. He wasn’t sure how, but this was different. And stressful, a little.

 

He had something to say to Baekhyun now. Someone with a bicycle passed in front of him. He could tell Baekhyun that he was wearing sunscreen like he’d promised him to, that night.

 

But Baekhyun had been drunk back then. Chanyeol had been sober but not Baekhyun. This wasn’t the same thing as being at a party. They’d never truly talked to each other. Even if Chanyeol knew Baekhyun took sunscreen seriously and liked Gallant’s Weight in Gold. Chanyeol wasn’t sure Baekhyun remembered anything they said to each other under the influence of alcohol. Or anything they did together. All the cuddling.

 

They weren’t drunk. Neither of them was drunk. They had nothing to say to each other.

 

Chanyeol stood there, bound by his puppy, and smiled back at Baekhyun when he passed by him. Another nod served as a greeting between them.

 

Chanyeol didn’t look back once Baekhyun walked out of the park, behind him.

 

This was his third confirmation. Baekhyun was cute whether Chanyeol was sober or not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Baekhyun used to take vocal lessons but he stopped because he got too busy with work."

 

Chanyeol looked at Junmyeon over the rim of his glass. He had no idea how Junmyeon went from talking about his students to telling him about Baekhyun’s life. He put his glass down.

 

"Why are you telling me that?" he questioned the other, giving him a suspicious glance that widened Junmyeon’s eyes with casual innocence.

 

Although, Chanyeol had to say he wasn’t surprised. Baekhyun could _even_ sing. No wonder his humming had sounded so pretty that night. There really seemed to be nothing Baekhyun couldn’t do. It made Chanyeol’s fingers tingle with the urge to grab that glittery bundle of talent and hug him. But he’d never say that to Junmyeon. He already found it weird enough on his own.

 

"I’m just saying," Junmyeon said, dragging his chair forward when the person sitting behind him pushed theirs back to get up. "Isn’t he your alcohol boyfriend?"

 

"My what?" The barista called out a name and Chanyeol glanced towards him before narrowing his eyes at Junmyeon whose raised eyebrows looked very annoying as he drank his coffee. He sighed. "Is that how Jongdae calls him?"

 

Jongdae had made fun of him a few times because of that whole drunk cuddling ordeal. He wasn’t even surprised he’d dragged Junmyeon into the joke to ruin Chanyeol’s life even more with embarrassement. Junmyeon put his cup down when Chanyeol grabbed his again.

 

"Not really. Jongdae calls him your alcohol teddy bear, I prefer the term boyfriend."

 

"Stop calling him like that," Chanyeol huffed, halfway between a whine and a groan. A very ugly, embarrassed sound.

 

Not that it was unpleasant, calling Baekhyun Chanyeol’s boyfriend. That would be one hell of a beautiful boyfriend. Baekhyun was probably a wonderful boyfriend, with his amazing cuddles and his delicious-looking lips. But he wasn’t Chanyeol’s boyfriend. He frowned and took a big gulp of coffee.

 

Great. Now, Junmyeon had planted the boyfriend idea into his mind and he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to disassociate it from Baekhyun again. Wonderful.

 

"You do act like you’re boyfriends though," Junmyeon insisted, so casually Chanyeol kind of wanted to tie him into that chair and leave him in a place full of coffee addicts to be driven crazy.

 

But Chanyeol was a nice friend so instead, he just childishly kicked Junmyeon under the table.

 

"Stop it," he threatened him through gritted teeth. Junmyeon snorted. He hadn’t hit him hard enough. Damn him and his way too kind and loving heart. He rested back into his chair and crossed his arms. "It only happens because we’re drunk. I ran into him a few times sober and we were far from behaving like that. We barely acknowledge each other."

 

He took a sip of coffee. Very bitter and cold in his mouth. He wasn’t sure it was because of the coffee.

 

" _You_ had the occasion to talk to him and you didn’t?"

 

Chanyeol sighed. Had this been anyone else, Chanyeol would’ve talked to them. That was how he’d met Junmyeon, drunk at one of Jongdae’s parties. He worked as a vocal coach for the same company Jongdae worked in, the same company Baekhyun worked for too. They’d met again while sober at a lunch with Jongdae and they’d just been friends since then.

 

Chanyeol wasn’t really shy, didn’t really lack in conversation content or social abilities. This just wasn’t anyone. This was Baekhyun.

 

"I don’t know," he mumbled, holding onto his cup with bots hands. "It could be awkward."

 

"Why would it be?"

 

"I don’t know. I say a lot of stupid shit when i’m drunk."

 

Junmyeon snorted into his coffee. "Yeah, he does too. You’re both equally stupid, you don’t have to worry about that."

 

"It’s not that," Chanyeol huffed, not even bothering to protest at the jab. "I just don’t know if he wants to talk to me when sober. It’s kind of embarrassing to always cuddle the same stranger when you’re drunk, isn’t it?" he asked, genuinely, because he really was at a loss here.

 

He kind of wanted to talk to Baekhyun, actually talk to him. But he also kind of didn’t really want to talk to Baekhyun.

 

"He’s not a stranger, you’ve seen him five times in total," Junmyeon said, finally dropping the jokes and the mockeries.

 

Chanyeol figured he looked as lost as he felt. But it wasn’t really that big of a deal. Just a cute boy. Chanyeol didn’t meet lots of cute boys. He sighed and downed the rest of his coffee.

 

"You’ll meet him for the sixth time tomorrow if you come to Sooyeon’s barbecue party."

 

Chanyeol put his empty cup down and traced his tongue over his teeth for remains of coffee.

 

"I don’t really feel like it, honestly," he shrugged, pursing his lips.

 

It was too risky. He didn’t want to go in there and stare at Baekhyun all night while Baekhyun barely even glanced at him. He’d feel too pathetic. He already felt too pathetic. Chanyeol wasn’t used to not pursuing people who interested him. Baekhyun didn’t only interest him, he crowded almost the entirety of Chanyeol’s attention, whether he was in front of — or on — him or not. He didn’t even know what held him back.

 

Junmyeon put his cup down and tapped on the lid with his fingertips.

 

"We both know you’re gonna come, Chanyeol. Alcohol, meat, and your alcohol boyfriend all gathered in one place. You’ll cry if you miss that."

 

Chanyeol snatched the cup away from Junmyeon and downed its content right under Junmyeon’s betrayed gaze. He didn’t like tea lattes. The revenge was worth the fancy failure of a drink he’d just ingurgitated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The meat was truly the only reason why Chanyeol was still able to keep himself from crying.

 

He’d eaten way more than what was socially acceptable but Sooyeon didn’t mind, she’d known him long enough to beware of his appetite. It didn’t really cheer him up, though. Not at all. Even catching up with a bunch of friends he hadn’t seen in a while, or a bunch of friends with whom he’d drunk only a few days ago didn’t cheer him up. Chanyeol liked talking to people, it usually made him very happy. He figured something in him was broken today.

 

He even stayed away from the alcohol, contrary to Baekhyun who, on the other side of the backyard, was talking with someone while sipping at a glass of wine. It looked very nice in his hand, the leg of it as delicate as the fingertips holding it. Too delicate. Chanyeol kind of wondered if he lacked in the delicacy department. Was that why Baekhyun had barely even looked at him ever since he’d arrived?

 

"What kind of ‘no homo unless we’re drunk, bro’ situation is this?"

 

Chanyeol looked at Jongdae and felt like slumping right on top of him. Both because he felt sulky and pouty and sad and because the situation was so drastic, Jongdae shouldn’t be able to joke about it.

 

"I wanna cry," he simply replied, to which Jongdae picked a piece of meat with his fork from his plate and then brought it to his mouth. Chanyeol opened his mouth and sighed at the melt of flavor in his mouth. "Now, I wanna cry even more."

 

Jongdae laughed and patted his shoulder. "I mean, if you cry then he might actually look at you. Not really positively maybe though."

 

Chanyeol didn’t know. He wasn’t sure whether he wanted Baekhyun to look at him or not. He didn’t know if he actually wanted to talk to Baekhyun or not. He was being dramatic, he was having a good time and truthfully, this was a nice afternoon whether Baekhyun communicated with him or not.

 

He just wished they could be friends, maybe. Baekhyun was very funny when drunk, was probably very funny when sober too. And cute. Very cute.

 

"I don’t know, maybe we really should only interact when we’re drunk," he shrugged, smiling at Sicheng when he caught his gaze. He’d been cooking the meat since earlier. He had a very big, very strange liking to cooking meat and was always the one to do it no matter who hosted the barbecue.

 

"That’s bullshit, you know it," Jongdae said, stealing the last piece of mushroom from Chanyeol’s plate. "You should just go and talk to him. You’re good at that," he said and Chanyeol scrunched his nose, partially because he was talking while chewing and because he made it sound much easier than it actually was.

 

He wasn’t wrong, though. Chanyeol was good at talking with people, making them laugh, understanding them. This shouldn’t be any different.

 

"I need more food first," he announced, drawing a snort out of Jongdae.

 

He let Jongdae go to Sooyeon’s side and join the conversation she had with Dongho. He headed towards the long table in the middle of the backyard, striking up a conversation with two girls he barely even knew on the way. They were from Sooyeon’s workplace and Chanyeol had only held short and random conversations with them before, just like he did now as they talked about the weather and how this would probably be the last barbecue party they would hold until next spring. He glanced at Baekhyun over his shoulder, noting that he was still talking with that same person. Chanyeol could _still_ hold up a conversation with almost-strangers. That was reassuring.

 

He soon made his way to the table, empty plate in hand, and pricked a piece of meat with his fork. Sicheng came over to put an additional plate of meat on the table and Chanyeol brought the piece of meat to his mouth instead, smiling. They didn’t speak, Sicheng probably had put more meat to grill and had to go back quickly but it cheered Chanyeol up a little. Sicheng was just so good at barbecuing.

 

Looking down at all the food on the table, he pursed his lips. There was just so many options. Maybe he should try something other than the meat, he’d eaten too much chicken and beef perhaps.

 

Before he could decide which salad he wanted to try, someone stood next to him and watched the display of food alongside him. Not someone. Baekhyun. Chanyeol glanced at him and immediately looked away. Parted hair, round glasses, and a large buttoned shirt. Too cute. Way too cute. Chanyeol’s eyes would weep if he looked at him too long.

 

Chanyeol’s mind weeped when he processed the fact that Baekhyun was standing right next to him. After Chanyeol had made up his mind and decided that he didn’t need to talk to Baekhyun that much. He hadn’t really made up his mind yet actually. It didn’t matter, Baekhyun was right there and he reached for a salad full of greens and reds and yellows.

 

"Don’t take that, there’s cucumber in it," he blurted out before he could stop himself.

 

Baekhyun looked up at him, the roundness of his glass frames softening his features. Chanyeol blinked. This was weird. Baekhyun might not even remember him. Chanyeol knew he didn’t like cucumber but Baekhyun might not know how Chanyeol knew it. He’d just introduced himself like some kind of stalker. This was weird. Was this weird?

 

"Oh, thanks," Baekhyun said then, blinking at him before laughing. Weird. This was definitely weird. Baekhyun was just being polite and not telling him that he thought he was a weirdo. He smiled then, swaying every single one of Chanyeol’s thoughts and rendering him unable to find a way to save this situation. "I didn’t think you’d remember what we talk about when we’re drunk."

 

He remembered. Baekhyun remembered him pretty well or at least, that was what the smile and the lack of suspicion and those words suggested. Chanyeol’s shoulders dropped in relief and he reached for the salad Baekhyun had just avoided.

 

"Yeah, I remember most of it."A little laugh, misplaced and unwanted. Baekhyun made him so nervous. He wasn’t wearing makeup today. His skin had a little glow to it, on the cheeks and right under his eyebrows and on his forehead. Or maybe he was wearing makeup. Either way, he looked lovely. He put a little bit of that salad in his plate and looked at him again. "Don’t you?"

 

"I do remember most of it too," Baekhyun nodded, reaching for a different salad, mostly compromised of tomatoes, carrots, and a little bit of cheese. Chanyeol had tasted it with suspicion earlier but it turned out to be actually delicious. "Well," he stopped, looking at Chanyeol with a slight wince. "I remember most of it unless I’m really piss drunk. But we never really are, are we?"

 

"Yeah, we usually stop drinking once we run into each other," Chanyeol said, breezing his words with a laugh.

 

He moved a bit to his left and reached for the mashed potatoes. This spread of food was pretty random but weirdly went along with the meat.

 

"I have to thank you for that, to be honest. I’m a little less late to meetings on the morning afters."

 

"Well," Chanyeol smiled, tapping the spoon against the edge of his plate to get the mashed potatoes out of it properly. "I have to thank you too. I’m wearing sunscreen today. I am now a changed man. Not necessarily happier but with better skin."

 

Baekhyun laughed at that, not loud but hiccupy as he looked at Chanyeol who joined in. His mouth was wide open and his nose looked squished under his glasses. It was a merry sight that made him want to pinch Baekhyun’s cheeks. Maybe kiss them too.

 

"You should make it a habit!" Baekhyun said then, his lips pressing together and his tongue peeking to lick them. "I told you to wear sunscreen like two weeks ago."

 

He really did remember everything. It was kind of pathetic how something so simple made Chanyeol bask in relief. He let go of the spoon, putting it back in the bowl and turning to properly give Baekhyun his whole attention. Sooyeon’s loud laughter mixed in with Sicheng’s behind them but Chanyeol could barely hear it over his own brain screaming a stream of _he’s so cute_ ’s to him.

 

"I’m trying!" Chanyeol defended himself with a laugh, watching Baekhyun grab a square of meat. Sicheng liked cutting them like this to make it easier for everyone to eat while sitting around with nothing but a fork or their fingers. Jongdae claimed that eating with fingers made barbecue’s tastier. He scooped up a little bit of salad into his fork, looking down. "I was actually wearing it too when we saw each other at the park but well, I wasn’t sure you remembered me." He stopped to snort at himself. "It would’ve also been weird to come to you and randomly tell you I’m wearing sunscreen. I didn’t want to look like a weirdo so I kept the pride to myself."

 

"Actually, I understand," Baekhyun said, drawing Chanyeol’s gaze to him. His nose was glowing. Like the sun had booped the tip of it again, just like that last night. The sun was so lucky and privileged. Maybe it was eyeshadow again. But it was weird to apply eyeshadow on your nose. It was called _eye_ shadow for a reason. "I wanted to say hi to you when we ran into each other in front of Jongdae’s house but I didn’t know how much you remembered me either. So I just awkwardly nodded my head at you like when you greet that one neighbor you see every morning but never interact with."

 

Chanyeol chortled. Baekhyun’s cheek fluffed up with food. Chewing was a normal, natural process of nourishing one’s self and shouldn’t look so adorable.

 

"It’s not often that people who become friends while they’re drunk remain so once sober, right?" he asked, glad that Baekhyun had felt just as awkward and unsure as him.

 

Chanyeol had probably had two one night stands in his life, back in college. He hadn’t kept contact with both of those people. Although, he’d made really great friends while drunk too. This was just different. He didn’t know why but it was different.

 

Baekhyun hummed, stabbing his fork into a piece of meat and keeping it there while he looked at Chanyeol. "I’d really like to be friends with you even when we’re not at a party or a bar though."

 

Cute. Too cute. Way too cute. Chanyeol wanted the ground to swallow him up just so he would stop feeling like he had to squeal at every word Baekhyun pronounced. So so cute and so so beautiful and so so fluttery he didn’t know what to say to that. Baekhyun wanted to be his friend, actual friend, even when alcohol wasn’t involved. Chanyeol’s mind shut down but he should say something but he didn’t know what to say besides eager agreement but he needed to say something and Baekhyun was looking at him with such loveliness in his gaze and Chanyeol kind of wanted to die and—

 

"Is it because you want cuddles even when you’re not drunk?" he asked, narrowing his eyes and fluctuating his voice into a teasing tone.

 

No. No, no, no. That wasn’t it. Nope. Baekhyun raised his eyebrows at him and Chanyeol should definitely hit himself with his plate and mash his face with mashed potatoes and hide in the salad and run away and find Jongdae’s shoulder to cry on.

 

"Shit," Baekhyun said before Chanyeol could possibly jump into the fire Sicheng was probably fanning like crazy. "How did you figure it out?"

 

A blank moment passed before Chanyeol processed the fact that Baekhyun’s exaggerated, rounded gaze indicated that he was joking and he burst into laughter. Not because it was funny, just because he thought he would really die and his entire nervous system was in crumbles. But hearing Baekhyun laugh along made it pretty worth it. He had such an enchanting laugh, both in sound and image. Chanyeol didn’t want to hear anything else, didn’t want to see anything else.  
  
And he didn’t. They spent the rest of the afternoon conversing, actually talking with sentences that made sense and weren’t perfumed with beer and weird mixes of various drinks.

 

They didn’t cuddle but Baekhyun told him about this colleague of his who basically fell in love with his biggest rival whenever he was drunk, gave him anecdotes about people he did the makeup of, laughed when Chanyeol told him about this one novel he basically translated while being mostly drunk because it felt like the writer had pulled a majority of it out under the influence of drugs.

 

They didn’t cuddle, neither of them drank anything but coffee after they were done eating, but Chanyeol wouldn’t mind switching parties for these enlivening conversations with Baekhyun.


	4. Chapter 4

Except Chanyeol was stupid and didn’t get Baekhyun’s number and they hadn’t seen each other for a whole week and truly, Chanyeol needed another drink.

 

He called out for another shot, drummed his fingers on the counter and then put his forehead down on the cold surface. Was this how widows felt? Or was this how women felt when they waited for their husbands to come back from war? Was Chanyeol a wife now? Was that his life now? Would he wait for a sign of life from Baekhyun forever now? Why couldn’t they just have world peace so Baekhyun didn’t have to fight with weapons of glitter and glow and just cuddle with Chanyeol forever instead?

 

"Man, you got it so bad," Jongdae said, sitting next to him but not really sitting next to him. He was sitting there because a pretty blond woman was sitting on his other side. Chanyeol hoped she was a cuddle monster and would make Jongdae’s life a living hell.

 

He grabbed his shot as soon as the bartender put it in front of him and downed it, scrunching his face and putting the glass back down with a loud thud, body slumping forward.

 

"You don’t understand Jongdae. You don’t understand," he said, shaking his head. Or was it a finger. He opened his eyes. It was a hand that he was shaking. His hand. Had his hand always been so big? He had big hands. Why wouldn’t Baekhyun hold his hand already?

 

"I sure don’t," Jongdae said, belching a snort. Belching. That damn word. As annoying as Jongdae’s lack of empathy for Chanyeol’s situation. He was _dying._ He _needed_ cuddles. He needed _Baekhyun’s_ cuddles.

 

"You don’t," he said, tapping his hand against the counter. He felt pain in his forehead. When had his hand switched place with his forehead? If Baekhyun wanted to hold his forehead instead of his hand, Chanyeol would happily allow him to. Once he came back from war. Baekhyun would look so good in a pink, beady, glittery uniform. "He’s so pretty," he sighed, or groaned, or belched. He wasn’t sure. But what he knew was that— "He’s so so pretty. Pretty eyes. Pretty nails. Pretty glitter. Pretty glittery boop on the nose. So pretty, Jongdae, so pretty."

 

"Who’s pretty?"

 

Chanyeol almost fell off his chair when he whipped around. His eyes almost fell off his head when they finally saw the soldier they’d been waiting to meet for years.

 

"Baekhyun?" Chanyeol questioned, choking up. He’d been waiting for this moment for ages.

 

He was back. His sparkly soldier was back from war. He stood there, in front of him. And he looked so happy to see Chanyeol too, with is big, big cheeks and his big, big smile. Chanyeol almost fell off the face of the planet when he threw himself at Baekhyun, wrapping his arms around his torso. But Baekhyun was a trained soldier, a triumphant soldier now and he caught Chanyeol by the shoulders.The front didn’t seem to be that bad of a place. Baekhyun looked very magnificent.

 

Chanyeol rubbed his cheek against the pillowy chest he was hugging. It wasn’t pillowy, pretty hard in fact. But he felt like he was laying on a cloud and no, he wasn’t dead yet, Baekhyun came to save him at the last moment which could only mean one thing. Baekhyun was a cloud. A cloud that quivered with laughter.

 

Chanyeol pulled away just enough to see the laugh on his face. He felt the smile on his own face, cheeks rocky, lips pressed together, eyes melting with tenderness as he looked at the nebula of purple on Baekhyun’s eyelids. Or burgundy. Or red. No, no definitely burgundy. Or something. Whatever it was on his eyelids, it was breathtaking. He had stars on the inner corners of his eyes, actual stars. Two more under each of his eyebrows. Glistening stars, glossy stars. Chanyeol couldn’t believe Baekhyun had fought the war in the milky way.

 

"Where were you," he mumbled, chin digging into Baekhyun’s chest when he stretched his last word in a whine.

 

He felt a hand patting his hair. It was a feather-light touch. Cloudy. Baekhyun’s hand.

 

"Well, I was working," he said, smiling down at him and Chanyeol couldn’t believe Baekhyun had gone up to a place full of stars but still chose to came back down here to smile at _Chanyeol._ They were truly husbands, nothing could separate them.

 

Except Baekhyun’s wars.

 

"I waited for you for so long," he said, voice wilting, lips pulping into a pout. He sniffled and hid his face against Baekhyun’s chest. "You’re so mean to me."

 

"You cutie," Chanyeol heard, very clearly because the music in this bar was very low, enough to be heard without overpowering conversations. He looked up to Baekhyun again and he was rewarded with fluff against his cheek. Warm fluff. A palm. "I’m here now, aren’t I?"

 

"Great," Chanyeol perked up with a grin, pulling away from Baekhyun. He heard a snort. Jongdae’s. He decided to ignore his mean best friend and grab Baekhyun’s hand instead. "We have lots of cuddling to catch up on."

 

He got up and started tugging on Baekhyun’s hand but Baekhyun tugged right back and Chanyeol stumbled against him, losing his footing. His very strong, very cute soldier once again caught him with an arm around his waist.

 

"Wait, let me order a drink first and then I’ll follow you wherever you want."

 

Of course. How could Chanyeol say no to that. He couldn’t. He waited for Baekhyun’s drink with him, grabbing his hand again and pulling it away from his waist to hold it properly. He studied the beauty of Baekhyun’s features while he talked to Jongdae about this and that. Chanyeol didn’t listen. The beauty’s call was too strong for him to pay attention to anything else.

 

Soon enough, Baekhyun got his drink and Chanyeol pulled him to an empty booth where they comfortably sat down. Baekhyun put his drink down after a sip and Chanyeol instantly huddled close to him, raising his arm by the hand to wrap it around his own shoulder so he could nestle properly against him. With a sigh of content, he closed his eyes. The music was even lower here, it made the melody of Baekhyun’s laugh the only aria Chanyeol could offer his ears to. His ears were very happy and so was his hair when Baekhyun’s fingers played with it.

 

"You’re not wearing glitter on your eyes today," Chanyeol noted with a faint hint of regret. Glitter looked so flattering on Baekhyun.

 

"Nope," was the perky sound Baekhyun emitted. "But it’s on my face instead."

 

Chanyeol pulled away at once, straightening up to look at him. Baekhyun proudly showed his cheek to him, moving his head just a little, enough for light to catch on the highest point of his cheek. Chanyeol blinked at the peachy glow laid on the smoothness of his skin, the sparkles scattered around so fine it looked like they were freckled into the skin itself. It was bright. So pretty. So lucent. So precious.

 

Chanyeol let out a sound of astonishment and leaned closer, taking in the tiny tiny stars on Baekhyun’s cheek better.

 

"You’re a diamond," he breathed out in amazement.

 

Only diamonds could be so pretty and sparkly and sleek. Baekhyun was a diamond. Not only was he a soldier but he was a diamond. He was so, so precious and Chanyeol wrapped his arms around his shoulders, squeezing him and resting his forehead against the side of Baekhyun’s head.

 

"What are you doing?" Baekhyun laughed, still in his hold but not rigid. He tilted to snuggle closer into Chanyeol’s embrace.

 

"You’re a precious gem," Chanyeol explained, protectively cupping Baekhyun’s jaw. "A precious burgundy gem. I can’t let people steal you. What if they try to sell you and I can’t find you ever again?"

 

Baekhyun laughed again. Chanyeol made him laugh again. Chanyeol made Baekhyun laugh. Made him happy, perhaps. Merriment flowered in his stomach, its petals tickling fuzziness in his core.

 

"Why are you particularly cute tonight?" Baekhyun asked, pulling away to look at him. Chanyeol’s hold went limp around him. Because he looked so dazzling. The glow on the tip of his nose. Chanyeol wanted to kiss it. "Is it because I’m sober?"

 

Chanyeol huffed. "I’m always particularly cute," he affirmed, nodding. Though, he supposed after seeing himself in the mirror so much, it was hard for Baekhyun to find anyone else cute. Chanyeol could relate. He hadn’t found anyone but Baekhyun cute ever since he’d first met him.

 

Baekhyun was his definition of cute now. Whenever he saw the word ‘cute’ in a text he was supposed to translate, he’d use ‘Baekhyun’ now. Baekhyun was the most accurate, universal translation of ‘cute’ now.

 

"That is very true, you are," Baekhyun said, patting his thigh. Chanyeol’s thigh was a good boy. It deserved all the pats and the love. He was glad Baekhyun thought so too. Baekhyun looked down at where his hand lay on his thigh and tilted his head, humming. "Can I lay on your lap? I’m a little tired."

 

Chanyeol’s head morphed into a smile. He shook the smile by nodding.

 

"Sure! I can braid your hair."

 

"Do you even know how to do that?" Baekhyun asked, giving him a suspicious smile. A smile. Always such a mesmerizing smile.

 

Chanyeol’s smile nodded again. "Of course. I have a sister. She always forced me to braid her hair. She’s so mean to me. But I’ll happily braid your hair, Baekhyun."

 

Baekhyun’s smile tilted down until it was bellow Chanyeol’s face and laid on his thigh instead. The stars stuck around his eyes were beautified by the angle.

  
Chanyeol kept staring at those stars as he spoke to Baekhyun, updating him about his life. He told him about how his sister used to steal his mother’s makeup and he’d always join in because lipsticks were so funny. He told him about Jongdae’s affinity to blonde women. Baekhyun told him blonde looked really great on him, looked very happy on him.

 

Baekhyun wanted to dye his hair pink one day but was too busy to do it. Chanyeol assured him he’d look amazing, whether he did it tomorrow or in five years. Baekhyun told him he worked with so many people who had damaged hair that sometimes, it scared him just a little to dye his hair. Chanyeol shared his sadness about not being able to read books for his own pleasure anymore, because he read so much while translating that he just hated words by the end of his days.

 

Chanyeol braided his hair. A mini braid, tiny and thin that he weaved together before unraveling it, playing with Baekhyun hair, massaging his scalp, braiding his hair again, and then repeating the whole process all over again.

 

Chanyeol didn’t know how much time passed but at some point, the jitter in his blood died and only relaxation and drowsiness was left. Baekhyun’s hair was so soft, his fingers could just nestle in the silk of it and let themselves flow into a peaceful slumber. Maybe Chanyeol’s thigh was just as comfortable. Baekhyun sometimes closed his eyes, on moments where they fell into silence and Chanyeol continued just playing with his hair without pronouncing a single word.

 

He loved this. He loved this so much.

 

So, so much up until Baekhyun sat up with a grimace and told him he had to go home now.

 

"But we didn’t fall asleep yet," Chanyeol mumbled, watching Baekhyun’s mouth open wide into a yawn that gathered his features into absolute cuteness. It wasn’t enough to cease Chanyeol’s sudden drop into sadness.

 

"I would really love to fall asleep on you," Baekhyun said with a sigh, his hand taking a power nap on Chanyeol’s thigh. "But I have to wake up really early tomorrow. I just passed by because Jongdae told me you were here."

 

Chanyeol’s sadness smiled a little. Baekhyun had come here to see him. It vanished as soon as Baekhyun patted his thigh with finality and got up, stretching his arms over his head with another yawn.

 

Chanyeol’s devastated arms wrapped around Baekhyun’s waist and he pressed his forehead against the softness of his belly, trying to hide himself from the disappointment. Baekhyun’s hands dropped to his shoulders, keeping him there.

 

"Don’t go," Chanyeol whispered to Baekhyun’s shirt, hoping it would transmit the message for him.

 

It worked. Not as good as he would’ve liked.

 

"I have to," Baekhyun said, voice sounding crushed. Or maybe it was because Chanyeol crushed his ear against him to press his cheek on his belly, squeezing him better in his arms. He earned a ruffle on top of his head. "I wish I could stay."

 

Chanyeol looked up at him. He felt like his eyebrows were dripping sorrow into his eyes. Baekhyun’s hand was still on his hair. He felt like a puppy, about to be abandoned. Was this how Toben felt whenever Chanyeol went out? Was he Toben now? Junmyeon did always tell him Toben looked a lot like him.

 

If Chanyeol whined like a sad, sad puppy, would Baekhyun stay?

 

"Do you really have to go?" he asked, voice muffled by the need for Baekhyun to stuck himself to him so they would never part ways again. Why did Baekhyun’s cuddles always end so painfully?

 

"We’ll see each other again," Baekhyun said, thumb caressing the curve of Chanyeol’s ear. No comfort was pushed into his skin, into his mind. "And this time, we’ll cuddle properly," he promised, the burgundy shadows around his eyes so dark but the smile he offered Chanyeol so brilliant he hid his face against his tummy again.

 

After a depressingly short moment, Chanyeol pulled away and let go of him.

 

"Okay then," he gave up, looking down at his empty hands laying on his empty lap in the empty, Baekhyun-less booth he was sitting in.

 

He heard a sound. Something halfway between a coo and a whine.

 

"Okay, one last hug," were the words that Baekhyun uttered as he pulled Chanyeol against him again.

 

Reluctantly, just a little happily, Chanyeol wrapped his arms around his waist again and closed his eyes, savoring the hand rubbing the back of his head.

 

When Baekhyun left, Chanyeol had nothing but his own pout to sulk with. And the drink Baekhyun hadn’t taken more than one sip from. He stared at it.

 

He hadn’t asked for his number. Chanyeol grabbed the drink and downed it, absorbing the colors of it behind his eyelids when he squeezed his eyes shut.

 

It was okay. Chanyeol would wait for his glowing husband to come back from war again. He did it once, he could survive it once more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"But why didn’t you ask for his number?"

 

"I was _drunk,"_ Chanyeol groaned, arms flopping around in exasperation.

 

Out of spite, he grabbed Toben out of Jongdae’s arms and put him on his lap. For the past two weeks, every time Chanyeol complained about not seeing Baekhyun in any party, Jongdae answered him with that same exact sentence. He was tired of having this conversation and Jongdae sucked at comforting him. He didn’t deserve petting Chanyeol’s son.

 

Toben jumped right out of his lap and rested his head on Jongdae’s thigh instead. No one loved Chanyeol. Truly. Not even his own dog.

 

He slumped back against the couch and slid down a little. It was uncomfortable, his socks could slip on the floor and he could fall off the couch at any moment. He didn’t care. He was miserable and pathetic and maybe he did deserve to split his head on the floor.

 

"You’re also very stupid." Maybe he should actually split Jongdae’s head on the floor. "But since I’m smart, I’ll help you."

 

Chanyeol’s gaze glided to Jongdae, his grimace and his head unbudging as he watched him lean towards the low table and grab Chanyeol’s phone. Jongdae easily unlocked it and Chanyeol didn’t even have the energy to straighten up to see whatever it was that he was doing on his phone. He sighed, closing his eyes to properly brood over his own misery until Jongdae called for his attention with a little _here._

 

He opened his eyes and scrunched his nose at the light glowing out of his phone. He pushed Jongdae’s hand to put a small distance between his eyes and the phone to be able to properly see it. As soon as he made out what, or _who_ was on the screen, Chanyeol’s foot slid on the floor in his haste to sit up properly. He saved himself from falling at the last moment and snatched the phone away from Jongdae’s hand.

 

"What’s this?" he said, a bit too loudly, startling Toben into jumping off the couch and throwing himself into another fit of dynamism as he started playing around with the tiny teddybear Chanyeol had bought him just last week.

 

"Baekhyun’s instagram account," Jongdae snorted, grabbing the plate of Pringle’s from the table and resting it on his tummy as he leaned back into the couch.

 

The loud scrunch of the chips as he munched on them wasn’t enough for Chanyeol to look away from the picture displayed on his screen. Baekhyun posing with his dog, holding him up to press his cheek into the corgi’s, his eyes squeezed shut and his smile small but compact with fondness. He checked the caption. _Bestest friends_ , it said. Chanyeol kind of wanted to kiss his screen. And smack Jongdae.

 

"Why didn’t you give me his account sooner?" he accused the other, stretching his words in the exact whiny way Jongdae disliked.

 

The wince on his face was satisfying. "I didn’t think about it until this morning."

 

"Right," Chanyeol said, only half listening to him and the excitement in Toben’s paws as he jumped around with the plushie in his mouth. He was already going back to Baekhyun’s account and started going through every picture one by one.

 

Jongdae silently munched on his Pringle’s and amused himself with Toben while Chanyeol melted a little more with every picture he saw. Baekhyun pointing at a flowering tree with a silly smile on his face. Baekhyun showing off the cuteness of his corgi’s butt. Baekhyun stupidly, adorably gaping at makeup brushes ornamented with rhinestones.

 

Baekhyun’s left eye decorated with soft colors and artfully crowned with petals. Baekhyun’s lips painted to look like a cake, the mole above his upper lip disguised into the prettiest cherry on top. Baekhyun doing a teenage boy’s makeup. Baekhyun’s left eye in a cloud of blue, its center glossy and smoky at the same time. Baekhyun’s hand dotted with drops of metallic liquids. Baekhyun’s dog sleeping on his lap. Baekhyun posing at night in front of a bright sign that read _don’t stand here_. Baekhyun’s left eye elongated with intricate swirls and colors and shadows. Baekhyun. Baekhyun. Baekhyun. A heart popping on Baekhyun’s lovely face.

 

Chanyeol froze. His cheeks hurt from smiling too much. He noticed it only at that moment. The heart disappeared.

 

"No," he whispered, staring at the screen blankly. "No, no," he said a bit louder, thumb swiping up, down, down again as the panic built up in him. He found the date. He’d just liked a picture from seven months ago.

 

He locked his phone and dumped it on the table before slapping his hands against his forehead and sliding back down along the couch in his miserable position again.

 

Jongdae chewed on chips. "Did you accidentally like a picture?" He chewed again. Toben threw his plushie against the table and then jumped on it like a predator.

 

"I wanna die," Chanyeol muttered, stealing the bowl of chips from Jongdae and engulfing three at once. The crumbles prickled his gums but he continued angrily munching on them.

 

Jongdae patted his head and it felt comforting until Chanyeol remembered he’d eaten chips with that hand. He decided that Jongdae had to go wash his hands and cuddle him as compensation for eating half of his Pringle’s. It happened only after a long moment of whining and fake sobbing. He also decided not to look at his phone again.

 

It only lasted until Jongdae left, half an hour of reluctant snuggles later. Even Toben fell asleep right before Jongdae had to go out in a rush for an unscheduled meeting. Chanyeol was left alone with his demise and it took him a very short moment of staring at his phone before he lost the battle and slowly grabbed it, held it face down against his thigh, turned it, and lit up the screen.

 

There was two notifications. Instagram. A follow. A message. Both from Baekhyun.

 

Chanyeol swallowed, rubbed a hand over his face, dug fingers into his chin, before unlocking his phone. He shouldn’t be so nervous about this. Baekhyun was so good at making him nervous. He opened the message and bit his lower lip.

 

 _Are you stalking me?_ it said, followed by the suspicious eyes emoji. It was sent five minutes ago only. It didn’t sound _that_ weirded out. Baekhyun had said he’d like to be friends with him outside of parties. There was no reason for it to sound creeped out.

 

This was fine. This was okay. This was nothing. Just a casual conversation with the person he wanted to cuddle for entire mornings and nights. Nothing much.

 

He locked his phone. A weight dropped in his stomach. This was his chance. This really was his only chance at communicating with Baekhyun with no alcohol involved, for the second time, and make it right. He just wanted to be friends. That was all Chanyeol wanted. And cuddles. But mostly friendship.

 

He unlocked his phone again, stared at the message for longer. Then he started panicking, what if Baekhyun had seen that he’d opened the message a while ago and thought that Chanyeol would leave him on seen. That would make it weirder. He had to reply quickly.

 

He could do this. This was nothing. Just a conversation. Chanyeol was good at that. Maybe this was more than a conversation. Maybe Chanyeol wanted it to be more. Maybe not. Either way, he could do this. He’d spent long hours flirting with strangers on Tinder without it ever amounting to a meeting. He was good at it. This was nothing.

 

Chanyeol tapped on the first letter, waited, typed his entire message, and pressed send before he could even check for typos. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath in, and looked at the screen again.

 

 _I must be a shitty stalker in that case haha_ , it read. The lack of smoothness was so terrible, Chanyeol felt the message prickling his eyes.

 

He waited for a reply for five minutes before giving up. Grabbing his phone, he went to his bedroom and settled on his desk. He put the phone face up right next to his laptop, glanced at it three times while typing his password. He failed to enter the right one twice. The phone never lit up with a notification.

 

His laptop woke up into his translation files and Chanyeol sighed, staring at the block of text he had to work on. He grabbed his phone and followed Baekhyun back on a whim before checking his own profile. Fortunately, Chanyeol rarely posted stupid stuff. Just screenshots of songs, pictures from parties, random things, Toben. Still no reply. He put his phone back down.

 

He translated a miserable paragraph in an hour. Constantly glancing at his phone held him back a lot. He turned the device face down, looked at his translation, erased a sentence, grabbed the phone again, unmuted it, and put the phone face down again.

 

He translated another paragraph in ten minutes, a smaller one. He started his third paragraph pretty smoothly and only once he was deep into the text, focused, did his phone twinkle with a notification. His hand jumped to it and he unlocked it without even reading the preview on the notification.

 

Chanyeol blinked, read it twice. _I know this is sudden but would you like to come over to my house tonight?_ were the words echoing in his head. Not in Baekhyun’s voice. In his own. He hadn’t heard his voice enough for it to be. Chanyeol blinked, blinked again, and another message popped on the screen. _For cuddles._

 

Chanyeol snorted an ugly sound. No one had ever asked him to come over for cuddles only. It was usually for sex, usually from a weirdly named person on Tinder. Usually, Chanyeol didn’t reply. This time, Chanyeol typed a few messages, erased all of them without sending them, sighed, cleared his throat, and typed a new message. _Are you already drunk? It’s like 3pm_ , he sent. He reread it, panicked a little at how cold and rejective it sounded, and sent an emoji too to soften it.

 

 _I’m totally sober!! Nt gonn lie tho, I am totally in the mood to get drunk toniht_ , Baekhyun replied almost instantly. Chanyeol barely had the occasion to smile at the typos before another message was sent to him. _We did say we’d both like to be friends, didnt we?_ Another message. _I feel like we kinda faild at becoming friznds after the bbq so I think this is the perfect occasion!_ Another message. Baekhyun seemed to be the kind to split his sentences into a bunch of messages instead of sending one proper paragraph. Cute. _I really dowant to get to know you better_. Chanyeol let out a weird sound, maybe a sob, maybe a laugh. _And cuddle with you if you’d lik to._

 

Chanyeol’s fingers rushed to reply before he could even think about it.

 

_Sure! I would really like to get to know you better too. And cuddle. I’ll even bring you Sprite :3_

 

Baekhyun loved Sprite. He’d told him back at Sooyeon’s house.

 

 _Phew_ , Baekhyun sent. Chanyeol vocalized that into a sigh of his own. _I thought I ws too direct and abrupt._ Chanyeol had thought _he_ was too direct and abrupt with that accidental like. _8pm work for you?_

 

 _Totally_ , Chanyeol sent. _See you tonight!_

 

Chanyeol watched, waited for his message to show as read, waited for a reply, and when it didn’t come after a minute, he put his phone down.

 

This had been a kind of weird conversation. Unusual. Chanyeol was very happy about this strangeness.

 

He was still restless and jittery but this time, he knew that it wasn’t useless, at least. He felt energized enough to attempt not to curse the author of the novel he was translating even once for the rest of the day.


	5. Chapter 5

Chanyeol had gone to a bunch of houses throughout his whole life, the home of close friends and strangers alike, but he’d never particularly felt excited about it.

 

Perhaps it was because he wasn’t used to going into a house for something other than a party, into a house filled with no one else but its owner. Junmyeon and Jongdae’s houses didn’t count, Chanyeol felt almost at home whenever he was with them.

 

But this was Baekhyun’s door that he was standing in front of, with a bottle of Sprite in hand. Baekhyun hadn’t reacted to the mention of the beverage by message but there’d been lots of typos, Chanyeol figured he’d been busy while texting. Or he didn’t care and was a naturally bad typer. The former option was more reassuring, he chose to believe to that one.

 

Gathering all his wits, pushing down the jitter in his body, Chanyeol raised his hand and rang the bell.

 

It opened soon enough, opened into a pastel purple hoodie, lined eyes, and light freckles Chanyeol had never seen on Baekhyun before. He felt flustered. Because the faintness of the freckles added a new delicacy to Baekhyun’s agreeable features. Because Chanyeol was wearing a hoodie too and they matched and it was so stupid of him to get excited about such a simple thing so he raised his hand and almost shoved the bottle of Sprite into Baekhyun’s face.

 

"I brought your free delivery," was the most awkward, less seductive sentence Chanyeol had ever uttered in his life.

 

Baekhyun’s laugh was the most stellar, less ordinary sound he’d ever heard in his life.

 

"Thank you very much," Baekhyun said, grabbing the bottle from him. Chanyeol noticed the colorful stripes of eyeshadow on the back of his hand before all he could focus on was how adorable Baekhyun looked while hugging a bottle to his chest. "I actually wasn’t sure you’d bring it since I kind of didn’t reply to your offer there. I was a little busy and texting you in between doing someone’s makeup, sorry if I seemed too direct or aloof. Or illiterate with all those typos."

 

So that was why. Chanyeol had figured but he still smiled in relief.

 

"It’s fine, Jongdae makes so many typos I kinda read it like a new language I totally understand now," he reassured the other, moving forward when Baekhyun stepped back to let him in.

 

Baekhyun’s house was pretty clean and unexpectedly, pretty somber when it came to its general decoration scheme. His entrance hallway was decorated by an intricate assemblage of mirrors, shades of black and gray led him to the living room, a tall lamp in the shape of a small tree welcoming him into the room, surrounded by tiny deer-shaped trinkets on the floor. A large grey rug was the centerpiece of the room and the justification to that one drunken conversation they’d had about rugs once.

 

Chanyeol found it surprising. He’d expected a colorful home but what he was shown was rather sober without losing its appeal. The couches were of a dark grey, draped for protection by a cover of a lighter shade that looked like the softest, warmest blanket. He was careful not to bump his knees into the glass table when Baekhyun indicated him to sit down, although he was curious as to whether the gem-like rocks encased under the table’s surface were stuck there or not.

 

"Have you eaten dinner?" Baekhyun asked, putting the bottle on the table and gesturing at Chanyeol to sit on the couch.

 

"Yeah, haven’t you?" He’d devoured an entire pack of chips as dinner, the anticipation of seeing Baekhyun not letting him pour enough attention into cooking a full meal.

 

"Not yet, I just got home," Baekhyun said, tucking the sleeves of his hoodie over his hands. The fabric was too short and jumped right back up, revealing the eyeshadow lines on his skin. "I’m kinda hungry actually though," he laughed, quiet.

 

Chanyeol didn’t feel any awkwardness in that sound or in the way Baekhyun stood in front of him, on the other side of the table. Just sheepishness, maybe.

 

"Don’t starve yourself just because I already ate. If it really comes down to it, I get hungry very quickly so I could devour a whole plate of anything right now," he admitted with no shame but with a faint jump of his shoulders. "Do you want us to cook? Or do you usually order in?"

 

"You can cook?" Baekhyun asked instead of replying, studying him with his arms crossed. It tugged the collar of his hoodie down a little bit.

 

"Why are you so surprised," Chanyeol retorted, narrowing his eyes at him but unable to conceal his amusement. Everyone was always surprised when they learned that Chanyeol not only could cook but also liked to do so. He supposed he really did look like he was clumsy, with all those long limbs.

 

"I don’t know," Baekhyun shrugged, actually shrugged although it looked like more of a shiver. He nodded towards him. "With the whole hoodies and ripped jeans themed fashion, I thought you’d feed yourself like a college student. Fast food and sandwiches and all that stuff."

 

"Hey, you’re wearing a hoodie too right now," Chanyeol protested, hand waving his laughter towards him.

 

Baekhyun raised his eyebrows and shifted his weight from one leg to the other. "I won’t believe it until I see the food _and_ deem it good enough."

 

That should’ve been kind of offensive. It was too direct. They weren’t close enough to joke around like that yet. But it wasn’t offensive nor upsetting. It was hot. The challenge tugging a corner of Baekhyun’s lips higher than the other was hot.

 

And Chanyeol accepted the challenge with the entire intention of wooing his way into Baekhyun’s stomach - and his heart, through his stomach. Or wooing his way into Baekhyun’s friendship heart. That could work too. He wouldn’t mind being friends with someone as funny as Baekhyun.

 

He didn’t even think he did it on purpose, everything Baekhyun did or said just seemed perfumed with hilarity. The way he looked at his own kitchen like it was his first time seeing it, standing on the threshold with his hands holding onto his own waist. His haste to put on an apron because pastel purple was a precious color and whoever stained it should be beheaded by a unicorn. The way he asked Chanyeol if he’d seen the nutmeg bottle as if this was Chanyeol’s kitchen and not his. Chanyeol’s stomach was cramping from laughing before they even started cooking.

 

He didn’t have that many ingredients in his fridge and Chanyeol didn’t know what Baekhyun liked so they both settled on pasta, something that they both deemed was and should be liked by everyone. He took it upon himself to do most of the cooking, just because Baekhyun had asked to be impressed and Chanyeol wanted to impress him, through something as simple as pasta and chicken sauced with lemon. Baekhyun mostly stood behind him and looked cute with his sunflower-patterned apron. Chanyeol knew because he kept looking at him over his shoulder just to make sure he looked impressed.

 

He truly was an easy person to amaze. He let out various forms and intonations of _woah’s_ when Chanyeol dropped the spaghetti into boiling water and didn’t even have to snap them in half to make them fit, something that Baekhyun said he was accustomed to doing himself. Another _woah_ when Chanyeol cut the cold chicken breasts without flinching. Another longer one when he cooked the dices and bounced them in the pan by shaking it a little. Chanyeol had never felt so validated before.

 

Baekhyun didn’t seem to like doing nothing though. He kept moving around, standing on Chanyeol’s left, on his right, behind him, on his left again as he watched him, kept moving around, jumping from one leg to the other, drumming his fingers on the counter. When Chanyeol first commented on it, Baekhyun said that he hadn’t moved a lot today, mostly circling around a chair as he did people’s makeup, and he had a surplus of energy to discharge.

 

Chanyeol took mercy of him and tasked him with simple things. Baekhyun pressed juice out of the lemon with as much concentration as he’d probably have were he disarming a bomb instead, made Chanyeol laugh by purposefully squirting a bit of the juice towards him but failing to aim and staining the counter instead. He was adorable. Especially when Chanyeol tasked him with stirring the spaghetti to make sure the butter he’d but in would melt evenly and properly.

 

He stirred a lot, stopped once it was melted, and then continued stirring at intervals of a few seconds.

 

"I didn’t even burn it, see," he said and when Chanyeol glanced away from where he was adding the lemon juice into the creamed pasta, he was tangled into the urge of patting Baekhyun’s head.

 

He’d risen to the tip of his toes to properly look into the pan, as if he wasn’t already tall enough to do it, and was looking at the spaghetti with such a satisfied little smile, Chanyeol knew right then and there that he’d found it. Finally a human being was cuter than Toben. He kind of wanted to cry.

 

He gave his attention back to the chicken.

 

"It’s because I turned the fire off," he snorted, tapping the wooden spoon against the rim of the pan to rid it off the sauce that clung to it,

 

"Oh," he heard Baekhyun say and when he looked at him again, his face was as pouty as that simple sound.

 

Actually pouty. With his lower lip jutted out, over his upper lip, his chin held high and his eyes looking down into the spaghetti, eyes drooped by sulkiness.

 

Chanyeol wanted to cry and jump into the pan so he would burn down. He didn’t know why. Baekhyun was kind of so cute, it made him feel violent. But Chanyeol probably wouldn’t fit into the pan anyway so he burst into laughter instead, a bit too loud, a bit too crazy, but validated by the alliance of Baekhyun’s laughter with his own.

 

Baekhyun really was easy to impress. And very dramatic. He hummed at the first mouthful of pasta like Chanyeol had just cooked him a recipe he’d stolen from a luxury restaurant rated five stars. He did make Chanyeol feel like his spaghettis should be cooked in that kind of restaurant. And then he made him laugh by getting out wine glasses only to pour Sprite into them. It made him feel fancy, he said, he always drunk most of his beverages in wine glasses.

 

Chanyeol was barely even surprised when, after the first glass, he got up to get a bottle of wine instead and poured it in the same glasses. He brought a new glass for Chanyeol but he turned him down, wanting to drink in the same glass too, just because it didn’t bother him that much and he didn’t want to make more dishes to wash anyway. He almost expected Baekhyun to mix in the Sprite with the wine and when he told him so, Baekhyun eagerly said that he did actually try one day and it wasn’t _that_ bad. Chanyeol scrunched his nose at him. Baekhyun teased him by threatening to pour Sprite into his glass of wine when he wasn’t looking. He retaliated by stealing Baekhyun’s glass and only giving it back when his lower lip sulked at him again.

 

He continued pouting even after Chanyeol gave him his glass back, even while drinking. Chanyeol had no idea how he did that but he figured Baekhyun was a Cuteness Bender at this point. He’d never see Avatar the same way again.

 

They made up by showing pictures of their dogs to each other. Chanyeol decided Baekhyun was a man to marry when he said he wanted to play with Toben instead of looking shocked when he showed him the video of the puppy jumping around in the living, all on his own, without even playing with anything. That was the kind of cute psycho his bestest bud was.

 

They talked about Chanyeol’s favorite books, about the latest novel he’d been translating, about how difficult it was to translate literary works despite being fluent in the two concerned languages. Baekhyun asked him if he spent a lot of time sitting, asking him about his posture, gave him tips to rest and massage his hands when they started cramping from rushing to write too much. Baekhyun didn’t know most of his literary translations or reference but surprisingly, he said that he’d like to pick up on reading again, even if it was just fifteen minutes a day while commuting in the subway or in taxis. Chanyeol happily recommended him a novel that he’d read not long ago, Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place, short but captivating enough for him to still be thinking about it a month after putting it down in his bookshelf.

 

Chanyeol mentioned the eyeshadow on Baekhyun’s hand, asked if he always had eyeshadow there and why he applied it there. Baekhyun laughed adorably, not mockingly as he told him that this practice was called _swatching_ and that he did it to choose whatever color he wanted to use on the eyes afterwards. Chanyeol kind of wanted to stab himself with his fork when Baekhyun started an entire monologue about swatching and how misleading or important it could be. Passion beautified Baekhyun, magnified his loveliness, made Chanyeol gulp on his wine to choke down the coos he wanted to offer him. Tipsiness blushed Baekhyun up, energized him, dropped his eyes and raised his hands in wide gestures. He got tipsy after only two glasses. Cute.

 

Baekhyun loved makeup. Chanyeol could tell makeup loved Baekhyun too. He loved how Baekhyun admitted that he liked having makeup on his hands and on his fingertips, that it made him feel like a child painting with his hands, that he just had so much makeup it was difficult not to just go into his beauty room and randomly swatch products whenever he was bored. Chanyeol felt very special when Baekhyun asked him if he wanted to go into his beauty room just to see how it looked and eagerly accepted, without even stopping to think about how he was completely foreign to makeup.

 

It was the place where people came over to get their makeup done when Baekhyun wasn’t the one to go over to them and Chanyeol had never actually stepped into a makeup store, but he supposed this was what it looked like. There was just so many things, a lot of it on display, on the big vanity table against the wall, although it was long enough to be considered a counter stuck to the mirrors suspended on the wall. There was a lot of products, eyeshadow palettes, cups full of brushes, little bottles of various colors and shades, cotton disks, and a bunch of other things Chanyeol didn’t even know the name of.

 

"You have so many things," he said, studying the counter in amazement and heading towards it instinctively. The brushes looked soft, enough for him to kind of want to touch them with his fingertips, just to check.

 

"That’s nothing," Baekhyun said behind him, and when Chanyeol turned to him, he was smiling, not big, a bit smaller than earlier. "You see those drawers there." He gestured towards the thin drawers lining up the opposite wall. Chanyeol didn’t bother counting them but he figured there were dozens of them. "It’s all makeup inside. I’m kind of a hoarder," he laughed, tiny, unsure.

 

Chanyeol raised his eyebrows. "You mean all those drawers are full of glitter?"

 

Baekhyun looked at him for a blank second before chortling. "What? No." He stopped and tilted his head, humming. "I mean, I do have lots of glitter in there but not only. I got foundation, sunscreen, skincare products, highlighters, blushes, palettes, singles, and many, many more things," he enumerated, the uncertainty vanished.

 

And Chanyeol figured Baekhyun was unsure because according to his words, he did seem to have a worryingly gigantic amount of makeup in there and it wasn’t nonsensical of him to think Chanyeol would be judgmental about it. But he wasn’t. Not at all. Especially not when Baekhyun always seemed so happy when he talked about makeup.

 

"That’s a lot," Chanyeol admitted with a hum before grinning. "Can I see it all?"

 

"All of it?" Baekhyun asked, eyebrows raising as he stepped closer to him.

 

"Well, not all of it. Just the glitter." He just wanted to check whether whatever Baekhyun was wearing already looked good on its own or if it was just the fact that it was on Baekhyun’s face that gave it the occasion to shine so prettily. Also, he’d always loved sparkly things.

 

Baekhyun seemed to appreciate that. Without hesitation but with a large smile, he opened up one of his drawers and presented to Chanyeol _the_ _first_ of his highlighter drawer. He apparently had three of them and as soon as Baekhyun grabbed one product and opened the lid to show him, Chanyeol kind of understood why Baekhyun hoarded these. It just looked so satisfyingly pretty and shiny in its package.

 

"You can touch it," Baekhyun said after a long moment of Chanyeol staring at the creamy texture of it.

 

"Can I?" he asked, hesitating. "It’s too pretty, I don’t want to ruin it."

 

"It’s alright," Baekhyun laughed, grabbing the product from him. "You have to touch it to use it, don’t you?"

 

Chanyeol watched as he then pressed his forefinger on the product, circling around a bit. When Baekhyun pulled his finger away, it was like gold had melted on his skin. He closed the lid and grabbed Chanyeol’s wrist with the same, clean hand. Chanyeol had never been so aware of his wrist bone before. Baekhyun slid his highlighted finger over the back of his hand and he’d never seen something so fulfilling before. The spread of gold was intense, sparkly and unmissable, a clean swipe that faded towards an extremity.

 

"So you apply that on your eyes with your fingers?" he asked, unable to take his eyes off the shift of light on his skin whenever he turned his hand from side to side once Baekhyun let go of him.

 

"No, this is for the cheeks mostly. And you use a brush for it or else it’ll just look terrible," he said, all serious and proper despite the quick, tipsy blink of his eyes. Hot. It was so hot. He didn’t know why but this, Baekhyun talking about highlighters, explaining things to him with so much assurance was charming and hot and attractive and so many more adjectives Chanyeol couldn’t remember. "I’ll show you the brush that I usually use. This is just a swatch."

 

So that was what swatching looked like. It was amazing.

 

It was even more entertaining to actually do it himself, he later discovered, after swatching five different highlighters. All the fingertips of one of his hands were stained in gold, bronze, silver, a light blue, and even pink - or rose gold, as Baekhyun corrected him while laughing. He laughed a lot. When Chanyeol barely even touched the first product he tried swatching from fear of accidentally breaking it and each time he let out a sound of amazement at the stripes of color accumulating on the inner side of his wrist.

 

They moved on to palettes then and Baekhyun explained to him the difference between metallic, glittery, and shimmery eyeshadows with a slight slur to his words and disoriented hand movements. Chanyeol didn’t really understand the difference, all of it was shiny _and_ glittery to him but that didn’t matter. His favorite was the duo chromes. The shift in color was kind of magical and he had to clean his fingers with makeup remover to continue swatching. There was just so many things, he understood what Baekhyun meant when he’d said he just couldn’t keep himself from playing with all the makeup he had.

 

Chanyeol tilted his head at the content of another drawer and grabbed a small palette with just one eyeshadow inside - a single, Baekhyun had said when he’d pulled the drawer open. He opened the lid and hummed at the color, a rich, sprightly green. He carefully rubbed his finger into the product, looking at his skin. It was almost like he’d crushed an emerald with a single finger. He huffed a laugh out to himself and looked up at Baekhyun when he heard his questioning hum.

 

He’d decided to let Chanyeol do whatever he wanted, touch whatever he wanted, and was now sitting on one of the chairs in front of the vanity counter — that was how Chanyeol decided to call it — and his smile, his smile was just. It was just a smile. It really was just a smile, lips pulled up into a curve, eyes narrowed a little, cheeks fluffed up, blushed and sparkled by one of the highlighters Chanyeol had swatched a while ago. It was just a smile and it shouldn’t be so attractive but it was and Chanyeol’s feet carried him to Baekhyun until he could stand in front of him and grab his hand with as much care as he grabbed a palette of colorful, frail shadows.

 

When Baekhyun didn’t say anything nor pulled away from his touch, still sitting comfortably on his chair, Chanyeol gently glided the emerald dust on his finger over a free spot on the back of his hand.

 

"This color would look good on you," he said, surprising himself with how eloquent he sounded. That simple sentence was of high eloquence considering how Chanyeol couldn’t hear his own thoughts from the torpor with which his heart was suddenly beating.

 

It wasn’t anxiety, it wasn’t anticipation, it wasn’t adrenaline. It was stupid. Chanyeol had spent hours cuddling with Baekhyun, their bodies embracing each other and their minds unraveling in each other’s presence, and this moment, this exact moment as he whispered that sentence to Baekhyun while looking into his eyes instead of the dazzling color he’d just drawn on his skin - this was the moment his heart enlivened for him.

 

Baekhyun smiled at him. A basic, human smile Chanyeol had seen on thousands of humans before. It looked celestial on Baekhyun. Nothing less.

 

"That’s green," he laughed, glancing down at his hand, at the hand Chanyeol was still holding. His wrist was so delicate, ornamented with the glitter on his skin, the glitter on Chanyeol’s skin.

 

Beautiful. Breathtaking. Dazzling. Magnificent. Mesmerizing. Pretty.

 

Chanyeol had learned an entire list of words he’d be able to translate that concept into. In at least three languages. He couldn’t recall even a tenth of them and even if he were able to, all of them would be lacking to define Baekhyun.

 

His thoughts were lacking too. He didn’t know what to say. He should say something. But he didn’t know what. But he should. So he opened his mouth and—

 

"But green is great! Grass is green and grass is very great."

 

Chanyeol wanted to choke on all the glitter he’d swatched and die.

 

"Oh god," Baekhyun whispered, shaking his head at him, letting out a quiet laugh. Maybe disbelief. Hopefully not judgment and regret. "You’re so silly. Such a dork. Let’s cuddle."

 

Chanyeol felt as glowy as his skin looked after all that highlighting. He pursed his lips.

 

"But swatching stuff is fun," he said, partially because he did want to continue swatching all this magical dust but mainly because Baekhyun had just called him silly and he was spiteful like that - even if Chanyeol had never enjoyed being called a dork so much before. It was the tone. It sounded affectionate. Or perhaps highlighter was some kind of drug Chanyeol had accidentally sniffed too much.

 

Baekhyun jutted his lower lip out. It was barely even a pout. It was just Baekhyun, a habit he seemed to have. A habit that would perhaps create in Chanyeol the habit of wanting to bawl his eyes out or squeeze the life out of Baekhyun. He swore he didn’t have such murderous tendencies usually, especially not as a means of showing his appreciation to people. It was the glitter. It was Baekhyun.

 

Baekhyun who tilted his head, still looking up at him through the attack of his lower lip, pulled his hand out of Chanyeol’s hold, and patted his thighs with his own hands.

 

"You can sit on my lap. I’ll roll us to all the makeup you want to swatch without you having to move."

 

Chanyeol stared at him for a moment that was anything but blank. A very noisy, very difficult moment. Repressing the urge to bounce around all over the room was a bothersome taste in his mouth.

 

He hadn’t expected that. Drunk Baekhyun had wanted to sit on his lap, that night. Sober Baekhyun wanted him to sit on his lap. Chanyeol would die to cuddle both Baekhyuns.

 

But he was sober - mostly. And this wasn’t awkward, wasn’t really weird either but Chanyeol felt just a little shy. They were alone, there was no alcohol involved, Baekhyun was staring at him, waiting for him to say something, and Chanyeol really didn’t know what to say besides a screamed _yes please._

 

"I feel like I’ll crush you though," he settled on saying, because that was a real concern. Baekhyun looked so small and as delicate as the pressed, shimmery creams Chanyeol was scared he’d accidentally destroy.

 

But when Baekhyun grabbed his wrist, turned him around, and guided Chanyeol to sit on his lap, he felt anything but weak.

 

"Don’t worry," he said, voice lowering into amusement. Chanyeol had stared at him smile so much he could see it in his mind even with his back turned to him. Hands sneaked around his waist and laced against his tummy. "I’m very strong and comfortable with you on my lap."

 

Chanyeol melted back against Baekhyun’s chest and laughed when Baekhyun dug his chin into his shoulder. He retaliated by stomping his foot over Baekhyun’s and after an exaggerated wail of pain, Baekhyun rolled them forward, abruptly enough for Chanyeol’s hand to grab onto his in a reflex against the threat of falling off the chair. But Baekhyun was holding onto him securely.

 

Swatching eyeshadow, mixing colors into horrible shades on the back of Baekhyun’s hand was even better while Baekhyun snuggled up against him. He could actually feel the hiccups of his laughter against his back.

 

By the time he left the house, cheeks hurting from laughing too much, body content from Baekhyun hugging him one last time, Chanyeol had the impression that the glitter on his skin was seared into him. He could feel their fuzziness in chest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"What do you mean you left after cuddling him for the rest of the evening?"

 

Chanyeol furrowed his eyebrows, glancing between Junmyeon and Jongdae and finding the samepuzzlement on their face. He looked back down at his pizza. Pizza would never judge him.

 

Well, his friends would never judge him either. Just tease him way too much. He cut a piece of his pizza, planted his fork on it after making sure that the bell peppers wouldn’t fall off, and brought it up to his mouth.

 

"I mean I left after eating, drinking, playing with makeup, and cuddling him," he summarized the evening, munching on his food all the while because he knew it would drive Junmyeon crazy. The twitch of his nose was faint but satisfying enough.

 

"You were on his lap, he had his arms around you, and nothing happened?" Jongdae asked again, stressing his words with a sway of his knife in front of him.

 

Someone laughed behind them, from the television hung on the wall, right above them. This was their favorite corner of their favorite pizza place. And yet, Chanyeol put his utensils down and deadpanned at Jongdae.

 

"No, Jongdae," he enunciated, voice dragged by exasperation. "I can appreciate people without having sex with them. Why is it so surprising? Do I _have_ to have sex with him? Why do you keep hinting at me having to have sex with him?" He stopped, realized, narrowed his eyes. He almost choked on the pizza he swallowed before chewing properly in his haste to get his next words out. "Is it because _you_ want to have sex with him?"

 

"What?" was Jongdae’s answer, crushed by the rim of his glass. He put it down with a cough. Junmyeon shook his head at them and continued eating. "Hell no. Never. I don’t want to even think about it, Chanyeol, ew, what the hell."

 

"Oh," Chanyeol sighed, shoulders dropping in relief. He gripped his utensils again and continued cutting his pizza. Or trying. It was kind of difficult. "Good."

 

"It’s not that we think it’s weird that you’re not having sex with him," Junmyeon said then, behind the tissue he used to clean his mouth. "It’s just that it’s been so long since you’ve been like this with someone."

 

"Since you’ve had sex with someone," Jongdae interjected before shoving half of his slice into his mouth. Chanyeol was so amazed by the fact that he hadn’t dropped that weight from his fork that he couldn’t even feel offended at his stubbornness.

 

"That too," Junmyeon confirmed, looking down at his own pizza. "So we kind of thought you just wanted to have sex wit him. Since you’re always stuck to each other at parties. You’re not usually like this with strangers. You do speak to everyone and anyone at parties but you don’t," he waved his fork around, "snuggle up to them like a deprived puppy."

 

Chanyeol sighed. He continued saying the dough, moving his hand back and forth rapidly and pressing as hard as he could. This knife sucked. Junmyeon was right. Kind of. Chanyeol always thought Junmyeon was right. He just had a way of saying things, in the wording and the confident tone, that made it impossible to even consider he could be wrong. Chanyeol called it his teacher-speech.

 

"So we’ve concluded that you have a crush on Baekhyun."

 

"What?" he hissed, snapping his gaze towards Jongdae’s unapologetic shrug. His fork scraped against the plate when he finally managed to cut through the stubborn dough of his slice. He winced, shaking his head. and showing the triangle piece into his mouth. "No. Nonsense. Just eat your pizza, Jongdae."

 

"He’s not wrong," Junmyeon intervened, nodding when Jongdae gestured at him with his fork while raising cocky eyebrows at Chanyeol who dropped his utensils, wincing when his knife clanked against the glass plate. "You even got jealous a second ago."

 

"No. No, no," Chanyeol insisted, frowning down at his pizza and struggling to cut it. Again. His forefinger was starting to hurt from pressing on the knife handle. "I don’t have a crush on him," he said after a moment of silence, giving up and looking up at them. Jongdae raised his irritating eyebrows while sipping on his soda and Junmyeon just hummed at him, sounding very unconvinced. "It’s just that he’s good at cuddling," he defended himself. "And so nice. And good at conversations. And he has so much stuff to tell me, always. And he’s so so pretty. And cute."

 

His last word ended in a sigh that deflated his entire body. Junmyeon and Jongdae remained silent but unmoving, just staring at him finally manage to cut a piece of his slice. He planted his fork on it and looked at them again. He put his knife down.

 

"Fine," he mumbled, choosing to ignore Jongdae’s huffy snort to shove the food into his mouth. He spoke around it to muffle his next words. "I might be having a crush on him."

 

And he didn’t have a problem with it. He could say it. He could accept it, the feeling. It was okay. It was just hard to admit. His lips weren’t used to saying such words, just like his body wasn’t used to feeling such fluttery feelings. It had been three years since his last relationship and it had ended on a friendly note, not much drama, maybe a few days spent brooding about it, but it was okay now.

 

It was okay and now that he’d actually said it out loud, Chanyeol had to bite his lower lip to crush a smile.

 

"You idiot," Jongdae chortled, affectionately kicking his leg under the table.

 

Chanyeol groaned, grinned, and didn’t mind Jongdae’s misunderstanding of what affection was supposed to look like.

 

"See, it wasn’t hard to admit, was it?" Junmyeon smiled, putting his utensils down with finality. He never finished his pizza, he had a baby stomach and always took the rest home for later instead.

 

And it actually had been hard to admit but not exactly to himself. Chanyeol had been aware for a while. He’d never named the excitement he felt towards Baekhyun, never really acknowledged it, but he knew it’d been there for a while now.

 

"You should get to know him more before acting on it though. You’ve really only interacted with him sober once," Junmyeon said, pouring more soda into his glass.  
  
He was right again. As always. Chanyeol didn’t hold it over him, though, he was past the age of hooking up with strangers or devoting himself to someone he’d only met less than ten times before. He was an adult now. Most of the time. Sometimes.

 

Despite the fact that what he felt was similar to that one crush he’d had all throughout his first college year, Chanyeol wouldn’t treat his feelings the same way. While these feelings were a little overwhelming, they weren’t much. It wasn’t love, it wasn’t even like, it was just interest and excitement towards someone’s presence, personality, and the prospect of spending time with them. He wouldn’t act on it, wouldn’t even put much importance into it now. He just felt like getting to know Baekhyun more.

 

And he felt like the more he’d find out about Baekhyun, the more these fresh feelings would anchor themselves in him.


	6. Chapter 6

If Toben was usually hyper, it got even worse as soon as Chanyeol got his leash out and gave the signal that it was time to go out for a walk.

 

"If you keep jumping around I won’t be able to put it on you and then we won’t be able to get out of here," he gently scolded the puppy, scratching behind his ears in a moment of calm.

 

As soon as Chanyeol tried clipping his leash on his collar again, Toben started wiggling around and Chanyeol had to physically hold onto his excited butt to keep him in place. He booped his nose as soon as the leash was on and get up with a groan. That had been exhausting.

 

"Now, remember," he said, wiggling his finger at the puppy and watching him tilt his head, tongue out and breath quick. He looked so cute Chanyeol wanted to stop there and take a dozen pictures of him but he kept his voice firm and his finger chiding. "If people out there try and say hi to you, you should at least look at them. Getting ignored by a dog is the most hurtful feeling in the world. Let’s be kind, buddy, alright?"

 

He waited a short moment, staring into Toben’s eyes to make sure he was understood. He then nodded to himself in satisfaction and turned towards the door, putting his shoes on as Toben sniffled on an unused pair.

 

Before he could open the door, he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket, unlocked the door with one hand and tugged the phone out of his pocket with his other hand to take a quick look at it. He stopped despite Toben’s impatient yip as soon as he saw the name on the Snapchat notification. Dropping the leash, he grabbed his phone with his two hands and opened up the app, staring at the red square next to Baekhyun’s name.

 

He’d been waiting for this moment the whole week, ever since they’d exchanged phone numbers and social media accounts back when they’d been at Baekhyun’s apartment. Chanyeol hadn’t sent him a snap first, he’d taken a few pics of random things a few times before deleting it every single time instead of sending it. He’d chickened out too many times, he didn’t even know why. Baekhyun made him a little more cowardly than he knew himself to be.

 

But Baekhyun had sent him a snap. And this was so stupid, Chanyeol’s heart dropped to his stomach as hard as he imagined it would if Baekhyun were to ever confess his love to him. He hoped that wouldn’t happen though. It would be worrying if Baekhyun fell in love with him after meeting him less than ten times.

 

He took a deep breath in and opened up the picture, features melting into a smile as soon as he saw the smiling corgi laying tummy up on the grass. _Someone’s happy to be at the park,_ the caption said and Chanyeol stared at it for much longer than he should. Baekhyun was such a good puppy parent. It was a relief.

 

Because Chanyeol should take his child into consideration when it came to his romantic life and sure, his life wasn’t remotely close to romantic at the moment, even with Baekhyun, but if it ever happened, then he’d be happy. Baekhyun was the second parent Toben deserved. And Chanyeol was totally the second parent Mongryong deserved. The kind that would help Baekhyun actually keep Mongryong in his own house instead of his parents’. He’d said that he had no choice but to leave him to his parents all the time because he was too busy and didn’t want to make him wait at home alone all day, almost every day.

 

Toben jumped up the wall, trying to reach for Chanyeol’s jacket, where it was hung. With a snort, Chanyeol pressed on the screen and opened up his camera to take a video of the puppy jumping and scratching on the wall before turning to Chanyeol and trying to climb up his legs instead. He captioned it with _someone’s excited to go to the park too,_ and sent it to Baekhyun before finally getting out of the house with a tiny bark of joy from the pup.

 

The reply didn’t come until Chanyeol was away from his house, Toben walking much too quicker than he should, tugging on the leash and sniffling around as they headed to the park. When the pup stopped at a random part of the pavement, Chanyeol finally got his phone out and swiped the notification open.

 

 _Oh which park are you going to?_ Baekhyun said and Chanyeol smiled at the lack of typos this time. It was still adorable to imagine Baekhyun typing quickly and carelessly on his keyboard in the midst of a busy day.

 

 _There’s this park right across a starbucks,_ he started typing before shaking his head and erasing it. There was a much simpler way to explain it. _The park where we ran into each other last time!_ he sent.

 

Toben started walking again and Chanyeol kept his phone in hand, following him and smiling when a little girl stopped her mother to wave at the pup. Toben stopped and sniffled her hand before letting her pat his little head. Chanyeol proudly smiled at the mother. He’d educated his bestest friend pretty well.

 

When the woman tugged her daughter away, Chanyeol checked his phone again. _I’m there too!_ Baekhyun had sent. _Do you wanna meet up so our sons can play together?_

 

Chanyeol didn’t even bother toning down the excitement in the _yesss!!!_ that he sent and for once, he walked almost faster than Toben as they headed towards the park. Chanyeol perhaps should’ve dressed himself better, worn his favorite hoodie instead of this one red hoodie he rarely ever wore allied to a dark blue, thin scarf. He had no idea how his hair looked, didn’t even bother checking on the reflection of his phone. Baekhyun had surely seen him in a worse state and Chanyeol knew he wasn’t _that_ terrible-looking even in his worst days.

 

Baekhyun, though, looked absolutely unreal no matter what day of the week, what time of the day,or what period of his life it was. He didn’t really have the means to check that last one, maybe, but Chanyeol had seen him drunk off his mind. It had always been a sight to behold, just like it was now, as Baekhyun sat on a bench, waiting for him, looking up at him through the purity of his eyes. If he looked sharp and sleek with beautiful makeup on, he looked just as pretty with the bare droop of his eyelids, the pigmentation at the corners of them, the slight puffiness of his dark circles, and the brilliance of his smile.

 

"I hope our kids will like each other," was what he greeted Chanyeol with. It was such a stupid thing to say. But nor really. It puffed Chanyeol’s chest, made his answering laugh breathy and heavy.

 

He kind of wanted to pat Baekhyun. He kind of looked like a puppy himself. Was that why he seemed like the perfect puppy parent to Toben? Probably.

 

"Toben can make friends with anyone," he assured the other, plopping down next to him.

 

Baekhyun stretched his legs in front of him. Stylish jeans and a cuddly deep red sweater. It fell on his shoulder perfectly, snug on the roundness of its edge. Chanyeol wanted to kiss his shoulder. He didn’t know why, it was random and weird, but that shoulder just looked like it deserved a smooch and Chanyeol would happily oblige.

 

But they didn’t have that kind of relationship.

 

"Mongryong is often too lazy to make friends, as you can see," Baekhyun said, nodding towards his puppy. Chanyeol laughed at the way he was just ignoring Toben’s attempt at bonding with him through continuously walking around him and barking at him.

 

"Toben won’t give up easily. He’s gonna do that with intervals until Mongryong gives up and looks at him."

 

"Your doggo really does sound crazy," Baekhyun said, laughing when Chanyeol turned to look at him with an exaggerated gasp. "Crazy cute!" Chanyeol narrowed his eyes at him until Baekhyun pushed him with a hand on his shoulder and they both laughed.

 

Toben barked, pulling their attention to him. The two puppies stood across from each other until Toben ran towards Mongryong who turned around and ran to the other side. Relatable. Chanyeol sometimes wanted to run away from Toben’s excitement too. But then life would suck without his bestest friend so he’d always come back to run after him anyway.

 

"How was your day?"

 

Chanyeol turned to Baekhyun with a shrug. Before his brain could muster up an answer, it got sabotaged by the blink of Baekhyun’s eyes. It was just blinking, nothing extraordinary, nothing amazing about it and yet, Baekhyun made it look like a spectacle Chanyeol should be paying a huge sum to witness.

 

"You look very cute without makeup on," he said, not a blurting out but a full, honest enunciation of that thought. Baekhyun was cute and Chanyeol had no problem letting him know.

 

Baekhyun hummed. "You mean I look better without makeup on?"

 

"No, no, that’s not what I meant. You’re cute with makeup on too. It’s a different kind of cute from now though. Not lesser or greater, just different." He tugged the sleeves of his hoodie over his hands. It was a little cold. Baekhyun didn’t seem affected by it, he was staring at Chanyeol unwaveringly, listening to him. It made him just a little nervous. The good kind of nervous. "I think you look good both ways."

 

When Baekhyun smiled, small but defined, Chanyeol figured this must be what appreciation looked like on him. Maybe he’d given a good answer, a good and genuine one.

 

"Thank you," Baekhyun said, turning his body a little more towards him, resting one elbow on top of the backrest of the bench, supporting his head on his palm. His hair looked so nice, it would probably feel feather-soft if Chanyeol ran his fingers through it. "How was your day?"

 

"The usual," he said, dragging his gaze away from Baekhyun to check up on the dogs. They were running around together now, Mongryong chasing Toben, Toben running back towards him when Mongryong randomly stopped running. As if he really was too lazy to bother running. "I spent the day translating. What about you?"

 

"I spent the day doing makeup," Baekhyun answered, moving his hand, running his fingers through his hair. Chanyeol watched the movement with envy. "I did people’s makeup all day. I had a really funny client.While I was doing her foundation she asked me where I got this big sponge and then I discovered that she never wet her beauty blenders. She’d given up on them bc she couldn’t get it to work and found them lame."

 

Chanyeol huffed a snort. "Even I know how to use beauty blenders."

 

"Yeah, because I’m the one who taught you," Baekhyun chortled, bursting through the pride straightening Chanyeol’s shoulders. "You thought it was some kind of stress-relief ball when you saw it in my beauty room."

 

"It looked very misleading, alright," Chanyeol grumbled, about to fight back against Baekhyun’s cute mocking grimace when the puppies barked at them.

 

They both looked towards them just in time to see Toben lurching himself towards the other side of the park, Mongryong following shortly after.

 

"The craziness is spreading to your dog," Chanyeol teasingly warned Baekhyun as they both stood up to see the balls of fluff better.

 

Mongryong ran much slower than Toben who was already on the other side. There was a lot of trees around this park, Chanyeol usually didn’t like letting Toben out of his sight and judging by the way Baekhyun rose on his tiptoes to see better, he didn’t either.

 

"Guess we gotta run with them. I’m not used to that," Baekhyun said, although more than a complaint or discomfort, it sounded like excitement when he fell back down to the sole of his feet.

 

"I’m very used to it, unfortunately," Chanyeol sighed theatrically, putting his hands on his waist.

 

Baekhyun threw him a crooked smile. "The loser pays for coffee after this."

 

Before Chanyeol could even register that demand, the fact that Baekhyun wanted to get coffee with him, Baekhyun already sprinted away.

 

Chanyeol didn’t like running for anything except for Toben. He’d missed the train or the metro once too many times from refusal of working his body that hard.

 

When he caught up to Baekhyun and ran right behind him, heard his laughter and saw the lovely mooning of his eyes when he glanced at him over his shoulder, he thought that he wouldn’t mind adding Baekhyun to the list of names he’d run for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were three things Chanyeol hated.

 

One, people who hated dogs.

 

Two, people who hated animals.

 

Three, thunderstorms.

 

Four, Naver Translate. That translator was shit. Kept giving Chanyeol mistranslations when he’d been in college and was trying to translate a literary text. Wordreference was much better. God bless word reference and its many qualities. His teacher had once said that that online translator sucked. Chanyeol had decided to hate him from then on.

 

But five. Five was the sight of Baekhyun crying. Not really crying. There was no tears as he looked up at Baekhyun, just a scrunched up face and closed eyes. Chanyeol kind of wanted to hold his face and tug his features apart to see if he’d look adorable even with an eye where his mouth should be.

 

But that would be inappropriate. This was a drastic situation.

 

"Are you sure you can’t find them?" Chanyeol asked, looking around as if Baekhyun’s shoes would jump out from behind the couch. Toben always hid between his couch and his coffee table. Maybe Baekhyun’s shoes would hide there too.

 

"I looked everywhere," Baekhyun whined, lower lip trembling. Chanyeol’s mood glitched as it followed the movement. "They’re not here. They left the house. Why did they leave my house? It’s our house, Chanyeol, what did I do that made my shoes want to leave, Chanyeol?"

 

He didn’t know. He had no idea why anyone would ever want to leave Baekhyun’s house. This was a nice party. More crowded than Jongdae’s or Junmyeon’s or Sooyeon’s parties were. With colorful people. So much makeup, on boys, on girls, on drag queens, on Baekhyun. Blue, bluer blue, darker blue, glossy blue. Blue. Blue. It didn’t run on his face. Beauty didn’t wanna leave his face. Chanyeol wouldn’t want to leave either if he was on Baekhyun’s face. That was one amazing face.

 

"Chanyeol," Baekhyun groaned, grabbing his hand and tugging. Someone patted his head while walking past behind him and Baekhyun turned to grin at them like the sun before scrunching his nose at Chanyeol again. Even sadness looked breathtaking on Baekhyun. The red puffiness of his eyes, the sparkles around them, in them. Just what could even not look good on Baekhyun?

 

"Sorry," he said, not really knowing why. He just felt bad for Baekhyun. "Maybe they left because you took them off?"

 

He didn’t even remember why Baekhyun had taken them off. It had been abad decision. But Chanyeol supported it. He would support all of Baekhyun’s decisions unless they might potentially harm him or someone else. Chanyeol would be such a good husband to Baekhyun. Perhaps he should go on a hunt to find the shoes and then give them to Baekhyun in exchange of his hand in marriage. But he didn’t want to blackmail Baekhyun. Perhaps he should wait until the day Baekhyun professed his love to him and gave him a proposal full of puppies.

 

He was shaken out of his fantasies by Baekhyun’s loudening wail.

 

"You mean it’s my fault that I lost my shoes? You mean I lost them because I took them off? You mean it’s my fault, Chanyeol?"

 

Chanyeol panicked. That was what he meant. But was that what he meant? It wasn’t what he mean per se. it was kind of what he meant. Baekhyun suddenly moved closer to him and buried his face against his chest, wrapping his arms around his waist, and sniffling. Chanyeol wasn’t sure what breathing meant anymore.

 

He patted Baekhyun’s head, comforted his hair with his palm, swayed him gently even if some EDM track was playing in the house. He wasn’t sure who had taken over the music. He let his chin kiss Baekhyun’s head.

 

"It’s okay, don’t cry. Please?" he asked, pulling away just a little, just enough for Baekhyun to look up at him. A glittery tear ran down his cheek, tinted blue. Chanyeol caressed it with his thumb, fit Baekhyun’s cheek against his palm, leaned closer. His nose nudged Baekhyun’s, until he saw Baekhyun’s cheeks bunching up into a grin. That was better. He didn’t like seeing Baekhyun cry. It made his heart throw a tantrum and scratch against his chest with enough fierceness to spark a little burn. "Please?"

 

Baekhyun sniffled, nodded, hugged Chanyeol again, kissed his neck. Chanyeol’s shoulders shivered and he raised them towards his ears. Baekhyun made him shy. The kiss made him feel important. He was too drunk for this. Baekhyun was too drunk for this.

 

Then, Baekhyun looked down and frowned.

 

"But my shoes," he muttered, almost too quietly for Chanyeol to miss it. "How do I walk without my shoes?"

 

He pursed his lips before perking them up with an idea.

 

"Do you want me to carry you? That way you won’t have to walk without your shoes."

 

Because walking without shoes was terrible. An affront. Shoes were important. Chanyeol had spent an entire year struggling to learn how to tie his shoes when he’d been a child.

 

Baekhyun pulled away from him so quickly, he lost his footing and bumped against someone behind him. He turned away to apologize to the queen. She adjusted her gigantic earrings and smiled at Baekhyun. Chanyeol blinked. Again. Again. Again. He felt kind of sleepy. He’d reach this stage of drunkeness. Did this level come before or after the horniness? Which horniness? The one for conversation or the one for cuddles? Or the one for sex? How many things was Chanyeol even horny for? He didn’t remember his stamina being _that_ surreal.

 

Baekhyun turned to him again and Chanyeol turned his back to him, leaning down a bit so he could jump on his back. Baekhyun’s thighs were strong plushies when he grabbed them and hoisted him up on his back better. His lips were warm against the tip of Chanyeol’s ear, his laughter twinkling like fairies. He’d never seen fairies. He didn’t need to when he had Baekhyun.

 

He carried Baekhyun for most of the rest of the night. It wasn’t much carrying. Baekhyun kept asking him to put him down on the couch or else he’d hurt his back. Chanyeol huffed, arguing about how strong he was despite not having gone to the gym in a long time, but listened because better safe than sorry. Only because of that. He carried Baekhyun only when he wanted to move from the couch. Otherwise, he sat on Baekhyun’s lap and listened to him talk with other people, interjected to make Baekhyun talk with him. Listening to that voice was nice, knowing that that voice existed only for him for the duration of a conversation was better.

 

From time to time, Chanyeol watched people. Not people. Their shoes. If he caught the person who’d stolen Baekhyun’s hot, slightly heeled boots, Chanyeol would steal all of their wardrobe. But the shoes were nowhere to be seen. After two more mixes of various drinks, Chanyeol started wondering if aliens had abducted the poor shoes. It was understandable. A threat to humanity, those shoes. He’d thought he would face plant on the floor and die as soon as Baekhyun had opened the door to him in those shoes, those shiny, leather pants, and that red, chained, illegal crop top. He had a nice tummy. Just enough definition. Chanyeol wanted to rest his head against its warmth and take a nap.

 

But it was difficult. Those pants. They hugged Baekhyun better than Chanyeol would ever be able to hug him and he didn’t even feel bad about it. Blessed. That was what he felt. Blessed by the curve of Baekhyun’s hips, by the thickness of his thighs, and by the form it gave to his ass. Or the form his ass gave to it. The gathering of folds and fabric wrinkles around his crotch area. Chanyeol knew it was just folds. He knew. But it just looked majestic. It was a majestic crotch. Majestic pants. Majestic Baekhyun.

 

And he sat on that majesty for a major part of his night. It was the most comfortable seat. Chanyeol couldn’t help but feel like he’d be even more comfortable without all the fabric between them. He craved that seat.

 

Then, he realized he’d reached _that_ level of horniness, felt bad, snuggled against Bekhyun’s neck, enjoyed the caresses on his nape, and carried Baekhyun around again when he wanted to stand up.

 

By the time everyone started leaving, Chanyeol’s horniness turned into one for sleep. But it was okay. He was always sandwiched in hugs between Baekhyun and whoever was saying goodbye to him. Chanyeol was living his best life and once they were left alone, he followed Baekhyun’s direction towards the bedroom. They only crashed against walls, doors, and drowsily paused around four times. Or was it eight? Chanyeol didn’t remember what came first, four or eight? Who even decided what number came before another? Who even ranked them? Weird.

 

When he stepped into the room, headed towards the bed, Baekhyun raised his forehead off the back of his head and started tugging on his ears.

 

"Wait, we can’t sleep," he said, halting Chanyeol. He groaned a question, no word, just sound. Baekhyun yawned and muttered his next words into his ear. "I have to take off my makeup. I will not sleep with this. It’s so bad for your skin. We should take my makeup off, Chanyeol."

 

Of course. They shouldn’t ruin Baekhyun’s skin. Even Chanyeol’s slumberous mind knew how precious Baekhyun’s skin was. He turned around, almost lost his footing, laughed at Baekhyun’s yelp, and caught himself up before heading to the vanity table across the bed. He’d never been in the bedroom before. He could barely even see anything, they hadn’t turned the lights on, but the blinds weren’t pulled down and it wasn’t difficult to realize this was a mini version of Baekhyun’s beauty room. He had makeup here too but a majority of products that didn’t look like makeup but rather bottles of lotions. He put Baekhyun down on the chair and straightened up.

 

Baekhyun flopped into the back rest and looked at the products in front of him for a silent moment.

 

"What’s wrong?" Chanyeol questioned, studying the vanity the same way Baekhyun did.

 

"Maybe I should actually not take my makeup off," Baekhyun sighed, closing his eyes and throwing his head back. "I’m so sleepy, Chanyeol. Yeol. Yeol-ah. Sleepy."

 

Chanyeol melted into his knees in front of Baekhyun, or next to him, since he was facing the mirror and there was no room for Chanyeol to be actually in front of him. Between his legs. Unfortunately. He wanted to take a nap on Baekhyun’s crotch. Majestic seat, majestic bed.

 

"But it’s bad for your skin," he said, voice slurred by the inflammations in his chest. This was bad. Chests weren’t supposed to be inflamed. Baekhyun was unhealthy for him. He was kind of like popcorn. So unhealthy but so, so impossible to give up on. Especially after the first bite. Chanyeol kind of wanted to bite Baekhyun.

 

"But my skin won’t sulk at me just because I mistreat it once," Baekhyun mumbled, eyes still closed, voice stretched and crushed. He was falling asleep.

 

And he was wrong. Baekhyun’s shoes had left because of unknown reasons. What if Baekhyun’s skin left too? Chanyeol couldn’t have that. A skinless Baekhyun. Although, Baekhyun would probably be just as hot without his skin.

 

"Just give me what you usually clean it with and I’ll do it," he offered, jumped on the occasion to touch Baekhyun’s skin. And take care of him. Drunk Chanyeol liked taking care of people. Sober Chanyeol probably would love to take care of Baekhyun.

 

Baekhyun refused at first, telling him not to bother, that he’d done too much already, but Chanyeol insisted and after a while, he started cleaning Baekhyun’s face as carefully as possible. Too carefully perhaps, Baekhyun told him to press a little harder if he wanted to clean well and avoid him falling asleep. Chanyeol pressed harder as he wiped off the highlighter on Baekhyun’s cheeks, rubbed Baekhyun’s eyes while trying his hardest not to poke them out. Soon enough, Baekhyun held his hand to press on his eyes a little harder. Chanyeol felt like their skin liked each other, he didn’t know why. He picked up the pressure on his own.

 

Baekhyun’s hand fell down to his lap after a moment. He was asleep. Chanyeol continued cleaning him, paying particular attention to his lips. Just because. He looked for lip balm once he was done. Baekhyun had said, while they’d been swatching lipsticks, that some of them dried his lips and he felt uncomfortable if he didn’t wear lip balm after taking it off. He found one, studied it, blinked the drowsiness away and tried putting it on Baekhyun. His chin ended up glowing more than his lips but it wasn’t that bad of a job.

 

He stood up, smiled down at the wrinkles under Baekhyun’s chin, leaned down to lift him up. He woke up with a groan, wrapped his legs and arms around Chanyeol and yawned.

 

Baekhyun mumbled something about Chanyeol not having to carry him, or at least Chanyeol guessed that was what he was trying to say. He shushed him gently. He liked carrying Baekhyun, weirdly. Carrying him like this, on his front rather than on his back was even better. Snugglier. This felt like a hug, a really clingy one. His favorite kind.

 

He carefully settled on the bed, Baekhyun still on him, on top of him. The bed was unmade, the blanket bunched up under his legs. He realized he’d forgotten to take his shoes off. He toed them off, wiggling enough for Baekhyun to wake up, sit up, turn around and take them off for Chanyeol. He looked nice. Straddling Chanyeol. His personal lump of cute cuddles. Chanyeol was so merry. So, so merry when Baekhyun pulled the blanket from under his legs, tugged, groaned, tugged more, and laid back down on top of him, still straddling him, resting his head on his chest. Chanyeol didn’t move, moved to rest his hands on his back, didn’t move again. This was comfortable. It felt like it shouldn’t be. Someone was sleeping on top of him. Baekhyun’s legs would probably hurt after a while, from being folded for too long, and he’d move away.

 

This should be enjoyed, loved while it lasted. Baekhyun breathed happiness into Chanyeol when his nose snuggled his neck and he sighed in what Chanyeol hoped was contentment. He rubbed his hand over Baekhyun’s back, the softness of his top, the creaminess of his skin where the fabric was cropped short. He could feel the bumps of his spine. Chanyeol had never felt more at peace before.

 

He closed his eyes, felt the weight of Baekhyun’s body on top of his, felt the dreaminess in his chest spreading to his mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The comfort he’d been wrapped by was gone by the time he opened his eyes.

 

He stretched with a groan, arms extending to either side of the bed but failing to touch anything but sheets. No Baekhyun. No cuddles.

 

"Finally awake?"

 

Chanyeol opened his eyes but couldn’t see much from how deep the frown on his face felt, pulling all over his head, enough to switch on an ache in his temples. But not enough for the halo of softness oozing from Baekhyun to go unnoticed. It oozed, truly. The damn hair and the bare features and the memorable eyes and the oversized shirt and and the shorts and the pretty smile that was so bright, he knew it was searing itself into his mind. Chanyeol kind of wanted to jump in that halo and let it tighten around his neck until he’d choke.

 

Maybe he was still a little drunk from last night. He let his head fall back down on the pillow, drowning at the pain ricochetting inside his skull.

 

"Finally?" he repeated, bringing a hand up to rub his eyes. He wanted to see Baekhyun. It made the headache bearable and worthy. It was thanks to all the alcohol that Chanyeol had spent the night here. He swallowed. Chanyeol had spent the night here, sleeping in Baekhyun’s bed, with Baekhyun. He’d slept with people, both figuratively and literally. It never made him fuzzy before. Or maybe that was the nausea. "How long have I even slept for?"

 

He closed his eyes and blindly pulled the pillow up, raising his head with difficulty. He dragged his body until he could sit up, pulled the pillow up even more until it was under his head, against the bed frame. He felt like goo. Goo hardened on one side. His head. About to burst.

 

His heart, bursting when Baekhyun turned towards him instead of looking at him through the reflection in the mirror. Chanyeol probably looked like the shittiest shit. Baekhyun’s beautiful eyes didn’t deserve to be infected such abomination. But he still smiled when he looked at Chanyeol.

 

"It’s almost 11am. You actually didn’t sleep that much," Baekhyun shrugged, turning away from him again to fiddle with something on his vanity table. Chanyeol could see but had no idea what product he was fumbling with. What he knew, was that Baekhyun’s shoulders were so broad. His back looked comfortable. Chanyeol knew backs weren’t comfortable. Baekhyun’s probably was, because he was Baekhyun. "I just waited a long time for you to wake up. It was boring."

 

Baekhyun waited for him to wake up. Chanyeol pulled the blanket up to his chin, held on it.

 

"When did you even wake up? Why do you look so great while I feel like dying?" he muttered, slipping a hand under the blanket to tug at the waistband of his jeans. He’d slept in them and he kind of wanted to burn them by now.

 

"I woke up like an hour ago I think," he said, a beat too late. He was doing his face. With the sponge. Blender. Beauty blender, he recalled eventually. He was dabbing it under his eyes. "And I don’t really get hungover for too long. it usually fades away after painkillers and coffee. Though, I really was very drunk last night. I woke up in the middle of the night and I think I was sleeping on top of you?" He glanced at Chanyeol through the mirror. Chanyeol found it hot, for some reason. The way Baekhyun tilted his head, the way his unused hand was resting on his lap. "Sorry about that, I’m glad I didn’t crush you to death."

 

"It’s okay," Chanyeol yawned, stretching his arms over his head and letting them fall back down on the bed with a little bounce. "I didn’t mind." That was an understatement.

 

"I’ll crush you in your sleep again sometimes then," Baekhyun said, holding the pink sponge in front of his face for a moment as he checked himself out. It sounded mindless, like he was too focused on his makeup to realize what he was saying. But Chanyeol would take it. He would very much love it if Baekhyun crushed him again. If Baekhyun crushed on him too.

 

He closed his eyes and silence soothed his head. When he opened them again, Baekhyun was putting a brush down and grabbing a palette instead. Chanyeol didn’t recall seeing that one in the beauty room. Maybe what Baekhyun kept in his bedroom was his favorites. Or maybe Chanyeol had seen so many palettes that they all meshed into the same one and he would never be able to tell any of them apart.

 

After a while of humming to himself, Baekhyun turned to him, holding the opened palette out.

 

"Choose what color I should do my eyes."

 

Chanyeol looked at the rows of color blankly for a moment. "Me?" was all he could say. Baekhyun nodded. "I know nothing about makeup though," he said, pulling himself up a little because his neck was starting to hurt from being bent against the pillow too uncomfortably.

 

"You don’t need to know much to choose one color," Baekhyun affirmed, stretching his arm out more. "You just choose the color you like and I’ll put it on my eyes. Very easy."

 

Chanyeol couldn’t believe he was being given the honor of deciding what should Baekhyun decorate his eyes with.

 

"I can’t really see from here," he said, narrowing his eyes to help himself but it was in vain.

 

Baekhyun stood up and approached him, standing next to the bed and holding the palette out to him.

 

"Since you’re a beginner, I’ll let you choose only one color." The sunlight had irritated Chanyeol’s eyes when he’d first woken up but now, as it let him see the crooked slope of Baekhyun’s smile, he felt grateful that they hadn’t bothered closing them last night. "I wouldn’t want you to make me wear green and yellow."

 

"I think being a field of sunflowers would suit you though," Chanyeol said, stretching his arms again. He laughed when Baekhyun slapped his hand with a chortle.

 

"Stop spilling cute nonsense and choose already."

 

Cute nonsense. Baekhyun found him cute. This was official. His chest puffed up and burst words out of him.

 

"If I choose well, will I get morning cuddles?"

 

He pulled the blanket up to his chin again. Because it was a little cold. Not because he felt shy. He didn’t really feel shy per se, just. Enamoured. Stupidly so. Crushes were so stupid.

 

Stupidly worth it when the corners of Baekhyun’s lips twitched, the crookedness amplifying as his eyes curved into satisfaction.

 

"If you make the right choice, sure."

 

This was a matter of life and death now. Matte and glitter. Glitter and metals. Or whatever that other kind of shiny eyeshadow was called.

 

Chanyeol studied the palette, let his eyes drift to Baekhyun’s legs. Smooth. Plush. He’d been sitting on them last night. He would die for it to happen again. He guided his gaze back to the palette and pointed to the circle on the middle row. A goldish, pinkish shade. It looked glittery.

 

"That one," he said, nodding to himself in approval. He was pretty sure that would look amazing on Baekhyun. Like everything else. But he just liked glitter on Baekhyun’s eyes. Chanyeol wanted Baekhyun’s eyes to shine for him, even if the only way for that to happen now was through sparkly makeup.

 

Baekhyun hummed, narrowed his eyes, turned the palette towards himself, hummed some more. It was just a sound. Chanyeol would love to record it and add it to his favorite playlist.

 

"We’ll go for a simpler look today then," Baekhyun said, closing the palette and putting it down on the bedside table, next to the leaf-shaped light. He met Chanyeol’s gaze. Or rather, Baekhyun’s gaze met Chanyeol’s two hearts. He was pretty sure he looked like the heart-eyed emoji now. Pathetic. He had no complaints when Baekhyun pressed a knee on the mattress. "You earned your cuddles."

 

Chanyeol laughed as he pulled the blanket up from the mattress so Baekhyun could get into the bed. When Baekhyun snugged up to him, Chanyeol decided he could throw the blanket away altogether. He didn’t need such vain thing when he had Baekhyun to keep him warm and hugged. But he didn’t do it, because Baekhyun was already wearing shorts and despite the room temperature being warm enough, he didn’t want him to be cold.

 

Silently, Baekhyun opened his arms and Chanyeol raised himself so Baekhyun could wrap an arm around his shoulders and pull him against his chest. Chanyeol twisted his body towards him and nuzzled against his neck first, sighing in comfort.

 

Baekhyun laughed and let out an exaggerated groan while squeezing him in his arms, much too tightly.

 

"Are you trying to murder me," Chanyeol chortled when he let go, settling normally against his neck.

 

"No, I’m just happy you’re here," Baekhyun whispered, the tone of his voice matching the sensation he flowed into Chanyeol. Calm but sprightly.

 

Chanyeol rested his hand on his chest, a few inches away from his face, and tapped the tip of his forefinger against the white of his shirt.

 

"Are you really?" he asked, just as lowly. This was a conversation that deserved that kind of calm, that kind of restfulness.

 

Happiness was serious. It was something easy to achieve, easy to be found for Chanyeol, but it wasn’t the case for everyone and it might not be the case at all for Baekhyun. Happiness created by someone’s presence was important, wasn’t meant to be taken lightly.

 

Baekhyun hummed, circling a finger around the edge of his shoulder. Chanyeol shifted, dragged himself up, closed an eye against Baekhyun’s jaw.

 

"I don’t meet people like you often. I mean, I guess I do. A little. But not _exactly_ like you. People who usually want to swatch makeup with me are friends, nothing more."

 

Chanyeol kept his eyes closed, let his lips unravel into merriment. Chanyeol wasn’t a friend. He was more. He was something they hadn’t named yet. That was okay, Chanyeol could go on without a label for now.

 

"People who aren’t really friends usually laugh when I tell them to choose colors for me," Baekhyun continued, Chanyeol felt him turn his head a little towards him, felt their skin brushing. He bent a leg, rested his knee against Baekhyun’s thigh. "Then they say they know nothing about makeup. Nothing more. They don’t try understanding, participating in something so simple. It is something very simple. Pretty much insignificant. But to me, it isn’t. So I’m happy that you’re like this. The way you are."

 

Chanyeol’s chest squeezed a little. Like it physically wanted to pull Baekhyun in, hug him into his heart. That was weird, a strange feeling, a little creepy, a little worrisome. Chanyeol enjoyed the feeling.

 

"I’m glad I’m the way I am too then," he said, finger inching up his skin until it felt the beginning of the rise into a collarbone.

 

Baekhyun said nothing then. Chanyeol didn’t either. Chanyeol talked a lot, always found people to talk to, always figured out something to talk about. With Baekhyun, Chanyeol enjoyed silence, didn’t feel like they were mismatched from the lack of conversation.

 

With Baekhyun, Chanyeol simply shifted just a little away from him, opened an eye and then closed it again, feeling his eyelashes dragging against the skin of Baekhyun’s cheek. He repeated it, once more, until the fluffiness on Baekhyun’s cheek permeated into his laugh, until he retaliated by tickling Chanyeol back with his fingers.

 

Chanyeol could make Baekhyun laugh just with his eyelashes. He didn’t need to make jokes, didn’t need to build a story.

 

It made his eyelashes feel fuzzy.


	7. Chapter 7

"Don’t drop the treasure or I’ll kick you out of the car," Chanyeol threatened, closing the door behind him.

 

Baekhyun snorted and held the square box tighter in his hands. "I’m not even in yet, don’t be mean."

 

His words were clearer than earlier, when Chanyeol had suggested they got out of that noisy nightclub and grabbed something to eat. Baekhyun had agreed with the drunken yell of a _Domino’s!_ and Chanyeol had sworn they were soulmates at that exact moment. Baekhyun had read his thoughts and maybe he’d also read how beautiful Chanyeol found him. Maybe that was why he’d held his hand and pulled him out of there.

 

A Domino’s was a few blocks away only and the walk back to Chanyeol’s car had been hilarious. Chanyeol wasn’t sure what he preferred, being drunk off his mind with Baekhyun and laughing hard enough to feel like falling right into Baekhyun’s mouth or being totally sober and watching the alcohol take over Baekhyun’s body.

 

Sober Chanyeol decided that anything he’d do with Baekhyun, anything he’d feel about him would always be equally as priceless.

 

Baekhyun groaned theatrically, an exaggerated sound as he closed the door behind him and settled properly on the seat, panting as if he’d just ran a few blocks. They hadn’t. They’d walked. Baekhyun had held onto the pizza. Chanyeol had held onto Baekhyun.

 

They hadn’t seen each other in a week. Chanyeol had an early conference call tomorrow morning, about his translation, and he’d only came here because Baekhyun had asked him if he would follow Junmyeon to the club. He’d strayed away from alcohol as much as possible and perhaps that had pushed baekhyun to drink even more, drink for him. Chanyeol still made sure he wasn’t too waisted, he didn’t want to worry about Baekhyun’s hangover tomorrow while discussing anaphoras and canceled literary devices tomorrow at 8am.

 

"You okay?" he snorted, looking at Baekhyun who was staring down at the pizza box he’d put on his lap.

 

He looked up at Chanyeol with a cheeky grin.

 

"I have pizza," was all he replied, causing Chanyeol to burst into a fit of chuckles that amplified into louder laughter when Baekhyun followed along.

 

It was stupid. Nothing funny. But the tone he’d used was so dreamy, so merry, so childishly innocent, Chanyeol just couldn’t hold it in. Baekhyun swayed towards him until he could rest his temple against his shoulder, vibrating with laughter.

 

Or maybe Chanyeol just wasn’t intoxicated on alcohol but on the glow dusted over Baekhyun’s collarbones. That had been the first thing Baekhyun had shown him at the club. He’d grinned at him brightly as soon as they’d met, called his name, hugged him and then pointed at the low collar of his shirt, showing him the highlighter on his collarbones. Chanyeol had found it difficult to pay attention to anything else after that, not even his drinks. The sparkles added definition to the already sharp and thin sculpt of his bones, added creaminess to the already appetizing skin.

 

It dazzled him as soon as he switched the roof light on. Maybe Baekhyun was so amazing he’d caught the sun as it had set, crushed it between his fingers, and spread it on his skin. Chanyeol would be willing to live in eternal nights if Baekhyun eternally wore highlighter on his collarbones.

 

To coax him into it, Chanyeol opened up the box to prevent Baekhyun from ripping it in his struggle and let him take the first slice.

 

"Is it cheesy enough for you?" Chanyeol asked as Baekhyun stretched his slice away, a greasy string of mozzarella still stubbornly linking it to the other slices.

 

"Yes, it’s perfect. It’s gonna ruin my lipstick though," Baekhyun said, frowning as he pressed on the slice that on the left of the one he was holding, to keep it there as he pulled more, until finally the string of cheese snapped. He let out a sound of triumph and then pursed his lips. Alcohol made him switch expressions and moods too quickly. "You’ll still like my lips even if they’re not glossy and sparkly and pink anymore, right?"

 

Chanyeol kind of wanted to burn himself off with the still fuming pizza. He’d made it too obvious that he liked Baekhyun’s lips.

 

"I think I’ll like your lips no matter what," he confessed because he was over this.

 

He was over hiding his feelings. He’d never really tried to do it anyway. It was difficult to hide the fact that he nursed a crush for Baekhyun when they’d spent so much time cuddling in the first place. Denying things would be ridiculous.

 

And when Baekhyun grinned, the fluff of his cheeks glowing, their highest points blazing beauty, the curvature of happiness on his lips lasting even through the first bite into his pizza, Chanyeol knew that honesty was the right way to go with things. It earned him the joy and privilege of making Baekhyun smile so brightly.

 

"I hope you don’t mind though, I know you preferred that one pizza with lots of veggies," Baekhyun said around his mouthful of cheese as Chanyeol separated his own slice from the rest of the pizza.

 

A little bit of sauce stained the corner of Baekhyun’s lips before he licked it clean. Cute.

 

"Nah, I really like cheese too so I don’t mind eating this," he said, biting into it and humming at the various sorts of cheese merging into one satisfying flavor. "And the club was getting too loud anyway, I feel much better here."

 

It wasn’t always fun to be the only sober one amongst your friends, especially at a club. Only Baekhyun truly stayed with him, talked to him, pulled him closer as they danced, and let Chanyeol cuddle into his shoulder.

 

"Clubs get boring after some time," Baekhyun hummed, already engulfing the crust of his pizza. He was a fast eater. Chanyeol wasn’t sure it was a good thing when allied to how much alcohol he had in his stomach, even if he was much more sober than when they’d been at the club. "I’m having much more fun here with you. Even if we’re just eating pizza and talking."

 

If Baekhyun continued being so sweet, Chanyeol would melt and turn into goo and cheese. Though, he wouldn’t mind being eaten by that mouth. Baekhyun slurped a string of mozzarella into his mouth, lips puckering adorably, shinily. From the gloss, from the cheese, from the fact that they were Baekhyun’s lips.

 

"If we put music on, this could be our personal nightclub," Chanyeol chortled, humming in distress when his pizza turned stringy.

 

Baekhyun laughed, laughed more when the first song that came on when Chanyeol put his phone on shuffle was the Baby Shark song. Baekhyun using his pizza as a fin and dancing to the song was a sight to behold, a sight that made Chanyeol wheeze. Baekhyun humming along to Coldplay was something Chanyeol wished he could record. He almost preferred it to the original song. That said something. Chanyeol had gone to four Coldplay concerts. Baekhyun complementing him on his music taste was something Chanyeol would, from then on, put more value to than the diploma he’d gotten after studying English and Korean for five years.

 

Baekhyun sobered up little by little, turned mushier and drowsier little by little. Chanyeol put on his ballads playlist, let it play, and asked Baekhyun to give him a complete list of the veggies he didn’t like. He’d been horrified back at Domino’s when Baekhyun had told him he didn’t like bell peppers.

 

The list Baekhyun gave him was long, terrifyingly so. He’d had to find a list of vegetables on the internet, read it, and gave his opinion on each of them. Chanyeol had never thought someone just plainly reading vegetable names and trashing their taste or nutritional value would be cute. And yet here he was, crush growing, culminating the urge to curl up on Baekhyun’s lap and stick his ear to his chest to listen to the vibrations of his voice.

 

He forgave Baekhyun for basically liking and semi regularly eating only four basic vegetables. Terrible. Chanyeol had never thought he’d be turned on by a vegetable hater. Baekhyun was truly amazing.

 

He promised both Baekhyun and himself that he’d, one day, cook eggplants in a way that Baekhyun would like it.

 

When Baekhyun accepted the challenge earnestly instead of arguing that he’d never like that _weird, gooey, kinda pulp-like_ vegetable, Chanyeol had to keep in the thought that he wouldn’t mind cooking for Baekhyun for the rest of his life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This novel sucked.

 

There were too many useless _simply_ ’s. Too many flowery sentences that Chanyeol just didn’t understand the use of. The characters _stepped in_ or _forward_ or _back_ or _closer_ too much. There was a billion other ways to describe characters walking towards a certain destination. He’d seen the word _soft_ used at least a hundred times and he was barely halfway through the novel. There was only so many Korean synonyms of the word _soft_ Chanyeol could find to diversify the vocabulary of the novel. If he had to translate that despicable word one more time, he’d throw his own head into the screen. Or print the novel and shred it page by page.

 

He downed his third cup of coffee of the day, slammed the empty mug back down on his bedside table, snuggled back into his pillow, adjusted his laptop so it wouldn’t dig into his stomach anymore, and drummed his fingers on the keyboard without pressing on anything. He was saved by the flash of light in the corner of his eye.

 

Diving for his phone, Chanyeol sighed in admiration at Baekhyun’s name on the screen. What a hero, what a life safer, sending Chanyeol a snap just when Chanyeol wished he didn’t need the money and could drop this shitty novel.

 

Discarding words and sentence structures, Chanyeol opened up the app and instantly huffed a chuckle out at the picture popping on his screen. Baekhyun wearing a sheet mask, frozen features but casual stance in his sweatpants and baggy shirt. He was holding the phone up above him, minimizing his shoulder size and maximizing his head size, his free hand tucked into his pocket. _Don’t I make the hottest ghost_ , the caption said.

 

And yes. Yes, he did. If Baekhyun were a ghost, Chanyeol would very much enjoy being haunted by him until the day he died. Possibly possessed too. Coffee always picked his horniness up by a little. Or maybe that was just Baekhyun’s effect.

 

After staring at the picture for much longer than necessary, Chanyeol typed a quick _cutest hottest ghost who takes care of his skin,_ and then put his phone down. He should be translating. Baekhyun put a lot of importance into skincare.A few days ago, he’d sent him a mini essay about exfoliating and moisturizing in the form of almost twenty notifications. Chanyeol learned Baekhyun suggested skincare products that he deemed necessary to each of his clients after doing their makeup. That was kind. Chanyeol thought he didn’t have to, he was a makeup artist after all, not a skincare artist. He stared at the blocks of words on his screen until his phone lit up.

 

 _Look I even have patterned ones,_ was the caption on a picture full of thin-looking packages. Strawberries, teddybears, an anime character he didn’t know, and even a pikachu-patterned one.

 

 _Oh my god you have so many and they’re all so cute???_ he sent, biting his lower as he imagined Baekhyun with the teddybear sheet mask on his face. The only teddybear Chanyeol needed in his life.

 

He waited, eyes stuck to the screen as Baekhyun typed. _That’s not many at all! I don’t even have enough TT._

 

Chanyeol sighed. Emojis should be stupid and childish. Not adorable and endearing.

 

 _That’s not many?? Aren’t they reusable though?_ he asked, genuinely curious. And also Baekhyun got extra cute whenever he talked about makeup or skincare and Chanyeol was willing to ask a hundred questions if needed.

 

Baekhyun answer came quickly enough. _You never used a sheet mask before, have you?_

 

Chanyeol frowned. That meant it had been a stupid question. That was alright. The amusement he could imagine on Baekhyun’s face was worth it. That little smile he had in his eyes, the part of his lips, ready to laugh or make Chanyeol laugh. Moreover, no stupid questions meant nothing to learn.

 

 _Uhhh no I haven’t_ , he said, suddenly wondering if he should’ve listened to his sister whenever she claimed that sheet masks were the best thing ever invented.

 

His phone lit up and Chanyeol looked down at it.

 

_You’re going to come over asap and I’m going to plaster one of these on your face._

 

Chanyeol knew being a dumbass would get him to important places someday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I never thought I’d see this day with my own two eyes," Jongdae said, shaking his head dramatically at his phone, with his best imitation of a teary smile.

 

"Is that why you took a screenshot of it," Chanyeol snorted, looking at the picture of Baekhyun and him making blank faces at the camera, features draped by mast sheets.

 

Chanyeol hadn’t really thought about the consequences when Baekhyun had asked if he wanted them to take a snap last night.

 

"This is a historical moment," Jongdae huffed, locking his phone and putting it on the table to grab his cup of coffee instead. "You usually hate putting stuff on your face. But Baekhyun convinced you to keep a whole mask sheet on for a few minutes. Powerful, truly."

 

Chanyeol groaned, dropped his fingers on the table and dropped his forehead against a forearm. Jongdae wasn’t making fun of him per se, he wasn’t wrong at all either. It was just a little embarrassing to hear how whipped he was for Baekhyun. This was the worst crush ever and the best crush ever at the same time.

 

"There, there," Jongdae snorted as Chanyeol felt him pat his head.

 

It didn’t make him feel better, especially since they were in a mildly crowded coffee shop and Chanyeol probably looked miserable to anyone who’d see this scene. And he wasn’t miserable. He was ecstatic, that was the thing. Baekhyun made him so happy. And they weren’t even anything yet, nothing was happening yet.

  
Chanyeol kind of wanted things to happen now. He really wanted to act up on his fuzzy feelings now.

 

"Soon, you’ll even let him do your makeup at this rate."

 

He raised his head off the table and supported it on the palm of a hand. He hummed at Jongdae’s amused curls on the corners of his lips.

 

"That might not be too bad, actually." he shrugged, grabbing his mug to sip on it as Jongdae raised his eyebrows. "He brushed my cheek with a brush once and it was so soft. Kind of a pleasant sensation."

 

"Actually, you’re right," Jongdae said, huffing a laugh out before his next words. "Sooyeon once sat me down and did my makeup just for the hell of it. It was pretty relaxing until she started drawing dicks on my cheek."

 

"That sounds exactly like her," Chanyeol chortled, moving his cup in circles on the table.

 

"Would you be into that though? Makeup?"

 

He looked back up at Jongdae and tilted his head. He could say yes, with nothing to fear. He was completely aware that boys and makeup was a weird, unacceptable concept to some, if not most people - at least according to Baekhyun, Chanyeol had never experienced that kind of hardship. But this was Jongdae. The least judgmental person he knew, someone he could share anything with. Jongdae might make fun of him on some subjects, but he wasn’t an insensitive asshole and knew the limits joking.

 

"Not really," Chanyeol replied, sincerely, after a moment of reflexion. "I mean, I like makeup. On Baekhyun, it’s just amazing. I love it." He would’ve never even considered the possibly of makeup on a man if not for Baekhyun. That in itself was beautiful. "I also love touching it I guess? All the glitter and stuff. It’s pretty fun but I don’t think I would love it on myself."

 

"You’ve never really tried though," Jongdae said, glancing to his left when someone walked past their table.

 

"True," Chanyeol considered. "Maybe I’ll totally get into it after trying once. But I don’t really think so. At least not on the same level as Baekhyun. I’d really rather appreciate it on him."

 

But he wouldn’t mind trying. He did wonder if he’d look just as cute as Baekhyun did with highlighter on his cheeks. Probably not. No one would ever be as cute as Baekhyun.

 

"But if he’d ask to do your makeup, you’d accept?" Jongdae asked, smiling at him.

 

Jongdae always got cheeky whenever Chanyeol had something going with anyone. He was kind of Chanyeol’s second mother, in that aspect. Pretty disgusting. But nice.

 

"Sure," he said without giving it much thought. "It could be fun, relaxing, and a nice experience."

 

"Also you’d do anything to get him closer to your face, probably."

 

"Oh god, exactly," Chanyeol sighed with his whole body, drooping towards the table again.

 

When Jongdae laughed at him, Chanyeol retaliated by making fun of him for letting Sooyeon draw dicks on his face. He wasn’t the only smitten one here. He wasn’t the worst one either. Probably.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Restlessness wasn’t something Chanyeol usually associated to himself.

 

He might be energetic but he rarely felt bored, always had something to do whether it be translating things or just enjoying himself any other way. He was close to finishing another chapter and this morning, he’d told himself he’d take a day off. It was almost evening by now and Chanyeol could say he hadn’t really done anything but wallow in boredom all day.

 

Playing games was alright to some extent. He’d switched between Battleground and League for a few hours but had grown tired soon enough. Then he’d picked up Candy Crush on his phone. Thirty levels later, Chanyeol felt very lame and dropped it. He watched a series, dropped it two episodes later. He’d grown so desperate that he’d even cleaned the dust off his TV.

 

Now, as he changed his bedsheets, something that he should’ve done perhaps last week already, Chanyeol figured out the reason behind this inability to choose something and stick with actually doing it.

 

He kind of missed Baekhyun. Not kind of. He missed Baekhyun.

 

They’d been exchanging nothing but messages for more than a week now. They were busy, both of them, Chanyeol had crammed translating to catch up on everything he’d procrastinated on and Baekhyun had been booked out of town, somewhere else for a few days. He was supposed to be back today, Chanyeol hadn’t really talked to him. Because he told himself that rest days were made to be spent alone, because he didn’t want to bother a possibly exhausted Baekhyun. Even if Baekhyun was always rendered cuter by tiredness.

 

He fluffed his pillows up, threw them against the bed’s frame and then threw his fresh-smelling blanket on the mattress, going around the bed to straighten it on all sides. Once satisfied, he dropped on the ripples of his bed and sighed. This had been a battle. One that had left him just a tiny little bit breathless.

 

He glanced at the phone on his bedside table, scratching the side of his neck. They hadn’t cuddled in so long. Chanyeol craved cuddles. Baekhyun’s precious and warm cuddles, not just anyone’s. He shot up to his feet and grabbed his phone, opening up snapchat. He hesitated for a moment. A snap would be more casual than a message. Chanyeol would be in even for a short conversation revolving around a random picture. Perhaps he’d even get a picture back. He would love to coo at Baekhyun’s face for a minute straight.

 

Pursing his lips, he thought about what he could possibly send. There was nothing interesting enough to be worthy of a picture in his room. He could send a picture of himself but Chanyeol hadn’t showered in four days. He wasn’t worthy of a picture either, at the moment. He looked down at his bed. He’d complained about having to change them to Baekhyun three days ago. If he told him he’d only changed them now, it could be embarrassing. But he was desperate enough.

 

He snapped a quick picture of his newly made bed and then pondered about the caption he could put. He kind of wanted to tell Baekhyun the bed was ready for them to cuddle in. But that was too direct. Chanyeol wasn’t drunk enough, he wasn’t drunk at all. But he was desperate enough so he let his thumbs wild on the keyboard. _I changed my sheets,_ w _e should inaugurate it_ , he sent without giving himself the occasion to read over it.

 

He threw his phone on the bed as soon as the picture was sent, then threw himself right besides it, face-planting on his mattress. He buried his face in the pillow and even the scent of cleanness didn’t wipe away the embarrassement rising up in him. Stupid. This was stupid. If he didn’t end up actually earning cuddles out of this, he’d die.

 

A weight jumped on the bed and Chanyeol felt Toben’s paws digging into his butt. He turned his head to look at him. Tongue out and that excited look on his face, the pup looked like he was making fun of him. Understandable. Chanyeol would make fun of himself too if this crush wasn’t getting so serious. He turned to lay on his back, stubbornly not looking at his phone, and closing his eyes when Toben clamped on his chest and licked his chin. It was strange how getting saliva on his face always made him feel better.

 

It took only a short moment for Toben to get tired of cuddling him and when he jumped out of the bed and got out of the room, Chanyeol was left alone with his embrassement again. He grabbed his phone with a slow hand, lighting it up to see that Baekhyun had replied to him three minutes ago.

 

He breathed out longly and opened the app into the chat Baekhyun had sent, the absence of picture only disappointing him until he actually read the answer. _That’s very fuckboy of you_. Chanyeol snorted. He could imagine the playful narrow of Baekhyun’s eyes. Or perhaps he’d been smiling in amusement as he’d typed these words. Chanyeol wished he’d soon be able to easily imagine Baekhyun’s expressions and associate them to his text messages.

 

 _I meant cuddling!_ he sent, embarrassment vanished under the pleasure of finally communicating with Baekhyun again. _You’re the one who has a twisted mind pft._

 

His phone lit up against his chest the fourth time Chanyeol peeked at it and as soon as he swiped the notification open, the light submerged into him, spreading fuzzily.

 

 _What can I say I kinda do._ Chanyeol snorted and a second message popped up. _I can come over tonight though if you’d like! A little late though, I have work :(._ Chanyeol unconsciously tugged the corners of his lips down. He’d have to wait more. _But if you don’t mind waiting, I will be cuddling you at 8pm sharp!!!_

 

Chanyeol sighed. Where did he even find someone as perfect as Baekhyun? Maybe Drunk Chanyeol was somehow right about all that alien business and Baekhyun was just a surreal being descending from the stars. Sounded very plausible.

 

 _It’s alright I don’t mind waiting!_ He didn’t even bother correcting the despair seeping through. At this point, Chanyeol knew Baekhyun didn’t mind it. The neediness and the clinginess and the cuddliness. _You can come over whenever you want._

 

When Baekhyun sent him a sparkling heart, Chanyeol’s own heart blazed enough to pulse him up to his feet and make him jump into the shower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chanyeol had ticked off one of his life goals that night.

 

"Are you sure you liked it?"

 

Baekhyun put the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table and plopped down next to him, adorable in the shorts Chanyeol had lent him. He’d already been wearing a loose shirt when he’d gotten here, around an hour ago. He’d come in late enough to leave Chanyeol the occasion to cook for him. Stuffed eggplants, sauced with bell peppers and tomatoes that only added to the juiciness of the ground meat, accompanied by cubed potatoes and even more meat. That was the best way to eat eggplants, Chanyeol thought. It was according to Baekhyun too, when he’d taken the first mouthful.

 

He’d looked genuinely surprised at the taste, he’d eaten it entirely and had even asked for another serving. Chanyeol had kind of wanted to cry, still felt like crying. The thought that Baekhyun’s tummy was happy and full thanks to him was just so blissful.

 

"Yep, totally," Baekhyun said for the third time. Chanyeol really didn’t want him to like the dish out of politeness. "I can even now confidently say that I will never ever eat eggplants again unless you’re the one to cook them this same exact way. I will accept nothing else," he assured, nodding to himself once, firmly. His bangs flopped against his forehead. Ash brown, Baekhyun had called it when Chanyeol had complimented him on the new color earlier.

 

"I’m glad then," Chanyeol grinned, not concealing his merriment at those words. They really made him feel nice. "We can peacefully watch the movie now," Chanyeol sighed, a dramatic sound that spoke of how nervous he’d actually been about this dinner. He’d even braced himself to order pizza in case Baekhyun hated it.

 

But Baekhyun had been a sweetheart about it, was still a sweetheart. A tired ball of sweetness and prettiness that had accepted Chanyeol’s offer for him to stay over. He felt bad for having made him come here instead of going to bed to rest and although Chanyeol did crave cuddling him the whole night, his first and foremost intention was for Baekhyun to just go to sleep without any more fuss after what they’d decided on watching. A few episodes of what Baekhyun called Buzzfeed Unsolved. Chanyeol had never heard about it but at the mention of ghosts and demons, he’d joyfully volunteered to prepare popcorn before Baekhyun took the duty out of his hand, cramming that after that dinner, it was the least he could do.

 

This was the best night of his life. Baekhyun’s fingers looked oddly attractive while holding popcorn, his mouth was oddly entrancing when it opened wide for him to throw popcorn in before crushing them with his teeth. Chanyeol was perhaps starting to lose it.

 

Baekhyun scrolled through the youtube channel, looking for his favorite episode, discarding the popcorn for a while and babbling about how he watched said episode whenever he felt down, that no one but Shane would ever make the word Goatman hilarious. Chanyeol decided to pay close attention and study what exactly made that word funny. He wanted to replicate it.

 

Before Baekhyun could find the episode, Toben jumped up on the couch next to him. He hadn’t really paid attention to Baekhyun all night, the same way he never really paid attention to any of his friends and just played around with his toys instead. Baekhyun instantly let go of the laptop and leaned closer to the puppy, puckering his lips into a coo. Chanyeol wanted to stuff his head in the popcorn bowl and suffocate until Baekhyun’s cuteness wouldn’t make his fingers nervous and his heart bouncy anymore.

 

He just looked so attractive. Parted hair, shiny forehead, a tint of eyeliner on his lids, an enamored expression as he patted Toben, called out his name, nuzzled against his face and made kissy sounds.

 

When he actually managed to get a kiss from the puppy, Chanyeol thought that this was it. This was the man he wanted to marry. He’d gotten Toben’s approval, in the form of a slow headbutt against Baekhyun’s nose.

 

His laugh was so pretty. So so pretty. Chanyeol had read tons of novels, had translated tons of metaphoras, oxumorons, anaphoras, chasms, and a bunch of other beautiful, poetic literary devices he couldn’t even remember the name of but this, the hiccup of Baekhyun’s laugh, it’s breathlessness, the way he licked his lips afterwards and sucked air in - this was the prettiest.

 

And when Baekhyun put the episode on, wrapped his arm around Chanyeol’s waist, across his tummy, put his head on his shoulder and snuggled merriment into him, Chanyeol knew he wanted more of this prettiness.

 

More often. More freely. More intimately. Just more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Chanyeol woke up, it was to fingers threading through his hair.

 

With a long, loud intake of breath, he opened his eyes, blinked a few times, dragged his leg up higher along a smooth leg. The fingers immobilized in his hair for a moment before they started moving again, rubbing circles into his scalp, soothing the annoyance of ever having to wake up. He loved sleeping so much.

 

He loved waking up with Baekhyun much more. Perhaps he should stop waking up unless Baekhyun was there to welcome him to reality.

 

As Chanyeol mindlessly stared at the bedside table, he felt Baekhyun’s hand gliding down along his shoulder, over his forearm before wrapping around his wrist. Chanyeol’s hand was resting on his tummy. He liked it, for some reason, being able to rest his hand there. It wasn’t soft, wasn’t too hard either, it was just right for his hand to be placed there comfily.

 

With another long intake of breath that cleared his head up a little, Chanyeol looked up. His head was resting on Baekhyun’s chest, his ear was starting to hurt a little from being pressed against him, and all he could see was Baekhyun’s chin. And the mole reigning under it.

 

He’d never seen it before. He’d never thought a mole could be so cute before. He’d never thought even Baekhyun’s _moles_ would make him want to bite his shoulder in a surplus of affection. He’d never thought-

 

"I want to kiss it," his lips mumbled, listening to his heart since his head was too blurred by the haze of sleep to function properly and give the right orders. "The mole."

 

Or maybe Chanyeol just wanted Baekhyun to know. Just wanted to say it. He’d kept it in, waited it off, without any reason. Baekhyun was interested him. He was interested in Baekhyun. It wasn’t difficult to figure out, they might be drinking too much alcohol, they might be partying too much, but they weren’t oblivious kids who had nothing figured out.

 

Chanyeol was an oblivious kid who had nothing figured out except the fact that he appreciated Baekhyun a lot. A lot.

 

He blinked, watched as the skin under Baekhyun’s chin wrinkled as he tried looking down at him. Cute. Chanyeol wanted to poke that pudge of soft skin. Chanyeol wanted to do a lot of things to Baekhyun’s skin. Bite it, kiss it, worship it.

 

He blinked, blinked, and the wrinkles disappeared as Baekhyun stretched his neck, looking up.

 

"I think it wants to be kissed by you," Baekhyun said, low but clear enough, much clearer than Chanyeol’s rusty, sleep-dusted voice. "The mole."

 

That was all Chanyeol needed to hear.

 

He surged up, brought himself up just a little, puckered his lips, and pressed a silent kiss of appreciation on the mole under Baekhyun’s chin.

 

Then, the fuzziness in his heart turned to bubbliness, heavy, light, bulky, insignificant, bubbles that weighed him down and pulled him down until he hid his face right on the spot between the pillow and Baekhyun’s neck. He felt Baekhyun’s laughter against his face, it stained his cheek into a beam.

 

They remained there, Baekhyun laughing, breathing out a tiny _it tickled_ before turning around and wrapping himself around Chanyeol. His leg thrown across the back of Chanyeol’s thighs, arms around his shoulders, his forehead against his temple, perhaps his feelings tucked against Chanyeol’s. Perhaps. Probably. Surely. They both knew it.

 

They didn’t do anything about it. They stayed there, cuddled up, under the cover, Baekhyun’s body blanketing Chanyeol’s. They talked. About nothing, about everything. They talked about Junmyeon’s pretty impressive wardrobe, about Baekhyun’s best friend’s really cute and disobedient puppy. They stalked the said best friend Sehun’s instagram account and cooed together at pictures of his dog. They dropped Baekhyun’s phone, Chanyeol pulled Baekhyun against his chest, tucked his head under his chin, and laughed when Baekhyun started blowing against his neck in an attempt at tickling him.

 

They said nothing, closed their eyes and just felt each other. Then they talked about that one coffee shop they both really liked, agreed on getting coffee there one day. They playfully argued about whether a small dog was better than a big one or not. Baekhyun spooned Chanyeol and asked him random translations of difficult words into Japanese. It was funny and then it turned disastrous when Chanyeol just couldn’t remember what _coffee shop_ translated into. That always happened. He always forgot how to speak a language when someone asked for a translation on the spot. That was what he told Baekhyun.

 

He was mocked a little, mostly cooed at teasingly, but when Chanyeol sulkily, mostly playfully pushed Baekhyun away from him with digs of his elbows into his chest, Baekhyun made up for it with a kiss right behind Chanyeol’s ear. That spot belonged to Baekhyun now.He didn’t know he could even feel his heartbeat behind his ear. It was official. Baekhyun reigned over his heartbeat now.

 

They got up after a while, when Baekhyun told him he was booked for the afternoon, had cereals, argued about the best brand. Chanyeol washed the dishes while Baekhyun went to get dressed at the last possible minute, after binging too many episodes of Buzzfeed Unsolved. Chanyeol had to admit it was pretty good. He was very into watching it, especially if that Shane guy made Baekhyun laugh so hard. Of course, he’d only watch it with Baekhyun. He wouldn’t miss out on the laughter for anything in the world.

 

They met up at the entrance, Chanyeol replying to a message Jongdae had sent him. It was a video of a dog making actual grimaces at the camera. He watched it a second time after sending his answer and looked up with the intention of showing Baekhyun the video too when he approached.

 

Except Chanyeol was stuck in place as he watched Baekhyun put his shoes on, leaning with a groan worthy of a seventy year old man.

 

"Isn’t that my hoodie?" he asked when the hood flopped into Baekhyun’s head as he tied his shoe laces.

 

It was his hoodie. Chanyeol would recognize his favorite hoodie anywhere. Also, Baekhyun was basically swimming in the largeness of it so there was no way it actually belonged to him. And he hadn’t brought any clothes with him either last night. Baekhyun straightened up once he was done with his shoes, hood falling back down. He shook his hands until the sleeves fell down to engulf them entirely.

 

Chanyeol kind of wished the sleeves would elongate more, wrap around his neck, and cut the air off. He wouldn’t live for longer with Baekhyun in his life. His heart wasn’t used to this, to this humongous amount of cuteness. He would die one day, he would. Jongdae would cry of laughter at his funeral, once he’d see the words _died out of someone else’s cuteness, not his own_ on his tombstone.

 

"What are you saying?" Baekhyun said, tilting his head, smiling, personifying the word _adorable_. "I thought we agreed on this hoodie being mine."

 

Chanyeol laughed, an ugly, huffy sound. Not outrage or offense. He just had to eject a bit of the merriment out or it would suffocate him, even if his chest hadn’t felt so cleared out in so long.

 

"Not really." His words were mushed together, stumbling over each other in their haste to reach Baekhyun. He tried not to smile at the recollection of one of the many drunken conversations they’d had. Bubbly. He felt too bubbly, too energetic, too chirpy. "We said it’s yours only when I’m wearing it. Like when I’m wearing it, we gotta cuddle."

 

This was an embarrassing thing to say. This was a stupid thing to say. Chanyeol barely heard himself over the streams of _fuck he’s so cute shit fuck damn it_ in his head.

 

It didn’t matter. Baekhyun had heard him say stupider things. He’d heard Baekhyun say stupider things. It didn’t matter because Baekhyun grinned, stepped closer to Chanyeol, to the door. Chanyeol pushed himself away from the wall and unlocked the door, just to keep his hands busy and prevent them from grabbing Baekhyun and perhaps shattering his lips against his.

 

This was violent. Too violent. These rushes of affection. They were kinda weird. Chanyeol just felt _a lot of things_ and didn’t know what to do with them. Baekhyun just made him feel very intense things.

 

"Well then," Baekhyun shrugged, a tiny movement of his shoulders, a tiny body that embodied everything Chanyeol wanted to kiss - wrapped in his favorite hoodie. "Since I’m wearing it, it means we gotta cuddle again for you to get it back."

 

That didn’t make sense. His heart still jumped on it. Chanyeol didn’t make much sense either. Perhaps it was for the same reason. Feelings.

 

"I want it quickly," Chanyeol said, the end of his sentence crashing down. He felt just a little breathless. Too excited. Too giddy. Too hopeful. "Tonight?"

 

Baekhyun grinned, swayed up to his toes, swayed down to the sole of his feet again. Chanyeol’s heart had started swaying a long time ago and it never stopped.

 

"Alright, this hoodie and I will be yours to cuddle tonight."

 

Chanyeol bit the inside of his cheek when he grinned too suddenly, too widely. Baekhyun reached and poked his cheek.

 

"My finger wanted to kiss your dimple," he said, gaze fixated on where their skin met. He dropped his hand and smiled. Perhaps it was a victorious smile. Perhaps he knew Chanyeol’s heart had jumped out of his dimple and landed right into the palm of his hand. "See you tonight then?"

 

He nodded, energetic, so incredibly, stupidly enamoured. He’d probably recall this moment with a cringe two years from now.

 

Just like the moment he bumped his forehead against the door after closing it behind Baekhyun. It didn’t really help him calm down. It just made him wish Baekhyun was there to kiss it better.


	8. Chapter 8

"Your lip paint is so nice, woah."

 

"It’s lipstick, silly," Baekhyun laughed, the sound bursting against Chanyeol’s shoulder when he swayed close enough to him.

 

"I forgot, it’s the fault of this," Chanyeol slurred, raising his glass of wine.

 

It was full. But that didn’t mean much. It was his fourth. Or fifth. He didn’t remember. Had they drank another bottle before this one? Or another drink?

 

Baekhyun bumped his glass against his and Chanyeol’s attention was pulled to him again. His neck looked nice when he stretched it to throw both his head and his drink back. His lips looked nice. A very dark red. Wine red. Or something like that. Baekhyun had shown him the lipstick earlier. It looked like a tiny bottle of wine, it smelled like wine, and Chanyeol wondered if it tasted like wine too.

 

But he didn’t want to test it. What if he found out that Baekhyun’s lips were the best alcohol on earth and then he lost taste for his favorite fruit punch? That would be a disaster, he _loved_ the punch Junmyeon made.

 

"It’s really pretty though," he repeated, gaze sliding up and down Baekhyun’s traced cupid’s bow. His lower lip looked plumper than usual, there was a shadow right under it. Juicy. His lips looked juicy. Maybe Baekhyun wasn’t wine, maybe he was the healthiest fruit juice.

 

He sure was the only fruit juice Chanyeol wanted to spill on himself, soak himself with.

 

Perhaps that was exactly what was about to happen. Baekhyun leaned close, close to him. Chanyeol closed his eyes, felt the stamp of a smooch against his cheek, opened his eyes again. Baekhyun was grinning. His cheeks were pink. Peaches.

 

"It looks good on you too," he chuckled. Drunken, flushed, so beautiful. Chanyeol wanted to die. Chanyeol wanted to live forever just so he could stare at Baekhyun ceaselessly.

 

Baekhyun reached for his sunglasses on the table, almost threw them into Chanyeol’s face when he held them in front of him. Chanyeol turned his head to the side and looked at himself on the reflective lenses. Baekhyun’s lips were on his cheek.

 

Chanyeol wanted to cry. Baekhyun trusted him with his lips, appreciated him enough to leave his lips to him. But more than the color, it was the shape of Baekhyun’s lips that looked good on him, he thought.

 

They drank, drank, drank, cuddled, snuggled, huddled, and soon they were hugging in front of Chanyeol’s apartment building. Baekhyun was still wearing Chanyeol’s favorite hoodie, a pout dripping from his wine lips.

 

"I don’t want to leave," he whined, shaking his head against Chanyeol’s neck.

 

Chanyeol lost his footing for a moment, pushing Baekhyun back against the taxi. He held the open door with one hand and held Baekhyun’s waist with the other.

 

He didn’t want Baekhyun to leave either. At this point, he wasn’t sure whether he’d be able to live without Baekhyun. He could die without Baekhyun, could shrivel up, could turn into a wrinkly, dried up, ugly grape. Grape. Wine. He was a grape and Baekhyun was wine. They were truly made for each other.

 

That was exactly why perhaps Baekhyun should stay the night over.

 

But he couldn’t. They’d talked about it, before getting drunk. Baekhyun had said he’d have to go home because he had to work early tomorrow morning and would be busy for the rest of the week. He’d told Chanyeol to kick him out of the house if he tried staying. Chanyeol had promised.

 

And he would keep that promise. Even if it ripped him inside out, Chanyeol would honor his promise, would put Baekhyun’s wishes above his own wellbeing, would obey and serve him until the end of time. Chanyeol was a pretty damn loyal _and_ hot knight.

 

"But you have to go, even if I want you to stay," Chanyeol mumbled against Baekhyun’s forehead, ruffling his hair.

 

He pulled away to look down at him. Baekhyun clung and refused, keeping in place, keeping his forehead pressed against Chanyeol’s chin, before yielding and looking up at Chanyeol.

 

Frowny, sulky, heavenly. That was Baekhyun now. Chanyeol wanted to cry. He wanted to bite the rosiness of Baekhyun’s cheek. Marshmallows. Strawberry clouds.

 

But he couldn’t. Chanyeol was a good knight. He wouldn’t be brainwashed, wouldn’t be strayed from his duties. Where was his horse even?

 

Discarding the very obvious fact that someone had stolen his horse _and_ his sword, he cupped Baekhyun’s cheeks. He let his palms kiss his cheeks. Baekhyun jutted his lips out even more. Chanyeol would start crying very soon if he didn’t stop.

 

"You have to work and I have to work too," he said, trying to convince himself more than Baekhyun.

 

He was strong. He could carry Baekhyun back home. Oh. Perhaps Chanyeol didn’t have a horse because _he_ was the horse.

 

Baekhyun sighed, leaned his forehead against Chanyeol’s chest for a moment before pulling away.

 

"Fine," he sighed, biting his lip, staring at Chanyeol, blinking. King of blinking. Master of blinking. No one blinked as good as Baekhyun. "Let’s text each other whenever we’re free?"

 

Chanyeol nodded earnestly, didn’t speak a word. He was scared that pleas for Baekhyun not to leave would accidentally come out if he opened his mouth.

 

He pressed his lips tight together when Baekhyun kissed his jaw. His heart tried hammering out of his chest when Baekhyun gave him a small smile and got in the taxi, waving at him from behind the window. He waved back at him and tried not to cry.

 

It was okay. One day, they would reunite again and this time, Chanyeol would marry Baekhyun to make sure they wouldn’t ever be separated again.

 

Chanyeol went back home, shoulders slumped. He drank more and wished with all his heart that Baekhyun’s family wouldn’t oppose him marrying a horse-knight hybrid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They didn’t see each other for a week.

 

Chanyeol was starting to have an easier time with his translations, getting used to the author’s repetitive and choppy style. He didn’t feel like the weight of the novel would crumble him into pieces anymore but he still very much would love to shred the whole book away.

 

Baekhyun sent him pics of him, sent him pics of glittery swatches, told him he couldn’t wait for Chanyeol to swatch these himself and be blown away, told him he missed him one day, at 3AM. Chanyeol had seen the message in the morning, had spent the rest of his day being happier and more productive than ever. He’d easily sent back that he missed Baekhyun too. He’d earned a heart emoji. That was nothing. That was a lot.

 

Chanyeol stalked Baekhyun’s instagram whenever he got too sad about not being able to see him. He should perhaps ask him to come over one day, after work. He should. But they were friends. Nothing more. Chanyeol thought he should do something about that, something that would make it totally acceptable for him to ask Baekhyun to sleep over out of nowhere. He didn’t, not yet. Baekhyun was always the first person to like his instagram posts, only seconds after he put them up.

 

Chanyeol had initially gotten Toben because he wanted someone to cuddle with at all time. He didn’t say it out loud because he didn’t want to offend his best bud but even Toben was a lame cuddle partner compared to Baekhyun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was only two days later that Baekhyun messaged him to ask him if he wanted to come over.

 

Standing in front of his door, shivering a little in his new favorite hoodie, Chanyeol shifted his weight from one leg to the other with a little bounce. It wasn’t to warm himself up but to calm himself down. He wondered if Baekhyun missed him too. He wondered if Baekhyun would like his new hoodie, the soft brown fabric of it. He wondered if it would be acceptable of him to jump into Baekhyun’s arms and cling to him forever.

 

It wouldn’t be, that was why Chanyeol tried calming down, taking deep breaths in before ringing the bell.

 

The door openeda short moment later and it very much felt like an angel had just opened the gates to heaven.

 

"Is that a new hoodie?" were Baekhyun’s first words to him, smiley, happy, glowy on his cheeks and the tip of his nose.

 

"Is your hair the color of cotton candy?" were Chanyeol’s first words to him, muted by how overjoyed his heart felt, breathless from how palpable the purity of Baekhyun’s beauty felt in the air.

 

It suited him so much. The pink of the bangs falling over his forehead brightened the dark of his eyes, heightened the points of brightness on his skin, laid dewiness over the tone of his skin.

 

Baekhyun grinned at him, nose squished between the rotundity of his cheeks, so fucking adorable Chanyeol would have combusted on the spot if Baekhyun hadn’t just leaned down and wrapped his arms around his waist. Chanyeol’s hands flew to his shoulders as he rubbed his cheek against his chest.

 

"I like this hoodie," he sighed, voice a fulfillment, both in its tone and in the way it made Chanyeol melt against him, until he buried his nose in the petal-like silkiness of his hair.

 

"I like this hair color on you," Chanyeol mumbled, holding onto his shoulders, tucking his words amidst strands of hair, hoping he could root the way he felt into that pretty little head.

 

They pulled away from each other and went inside, Baekhyun’s hand still rubbing the fabric of his hoodie, on his arm. This had been a good investment. Chanyeol didn’t buy clothes that often but maybe he should surprise Baekhyun with all kinds of equally as dark colored hoodies starting from now on.

 

They caught up with each other while making tea. They decided to be healthy today, to keep alcohol away. Even if Chanyeol knew bourbon and tea could be a pretty decent mix. Chanyeol watched Baekhyun almost spill the boiling water on the floor as he laughed at one of Toben’s latest antics, the one involving him ripping a teddy bear Chanyeol had bought for him just two days ago. Baekhyun shared just as funny stories about his own dog and by the time the tea was ready, the shoulder of Chanyeol’s hoodie had a little bit of glitter on it from Baekhyun pressing his highlighted cheek against it. He liked it. It made this hoodie even better.

 

"You got new makeup?" Chanyeol asked as he put their cups on the table, not too far from the Sephora shopping bag.

 

"Yep," Baekhyun said, plopping down on the couch. Chanyeol sat down next to him, close enough for their shoulders to press together. "I got it yesterday but didn’t have the occasion to try it out next."

 

"Can I see?"

 

"Sure," Baekhyun grinned, that same grin he always had whenever Chanyeol and his makeup collection came together, through questions or directly through Chanyeol shoving his fingers in glittery powders and creams.

 

He looked inside the bag and pulled the first package out, studying it.

 

"My sister has the same foundation," he noted, staring at the familiar peach motive on the packaging. "She says it has a pretty great coverage and smells nice."

 

"Oh, so you do know a little about makeup," Baekhyun said, pushing his shoulder against his in a teasing bump.

 

Chanyeol huffed a quiet laugh, putting the bag down to reach for his cup of tea. "Well, when my sister used to steal our mom’s makeup, I was always in to paint her face with it," he boasted, tilting his chin up and playfully staring down at Baekhyun. Even back then, Chanyeol loved rubbing his fingers in the glitter.

 

"You already did her makeup before?" Baekhyun asked, pulling away from him, eyes rounding up and eyebrows raising. His fingers looked really nice around the handle of his cup.

 

"Well, I was like eight. The result wasn’t really worthy of being called makeup," he snorted after gulping down the hot beverage, recalling how he used to overdraw her lips, putting red lipstick all the way down to her chin and blue eyeshadow all the way up to her eyebrows.

 

"For some reason, I feel like you’d suck at it even today," Baekhyun said, eyes teasingly narrowing at him over the rim of his cup as he sipped at his tea.

 

"That’s not very nice of you to say," Chanyeol grumbled, elbowing him ever so slightly. He couldn’t really deny it much, Baekhyun was probably right. But that didn’t mean he would ignore the challenge in Baekhyun’s face. Minimal makeup today, his eyelids looked a soft orange, sparkling faintly. Chanyeol looked down into his tea. "I’m pretty sure I’m not _that_ bad."

 

"How about you do my makeup then?"

 

Baekhyun’s humming words were melodious enough to snap his gaze back to him.

 

"What?" was all he could say. "Why?"

 

"Why not?" Baekhyun shrugged, a visual bounce of his broad shoulders. His shoulders looked so broad in that knit sweater.

 

"You’re literally a makeup artist," Chanyeol said, shaking his head because he wouldn’t even dare to ruin Baekhyun’s pretty face with his clumsy hands. He couldn’t possibly compare to what Baekhyun usually did with his makeup.

 

"Yeah but no one did my makeup in years," Baekhyun frowned, putting his cup down and looking at Chanyeol with the furrow of his eyebrows, the jut of his lower lip. "It’s a very relaxing sensation. Don’t you wanna try?"

 

"I’d be so bad at it though," Chanyeol mumbled, trying his hardest not to succumb at Baekhyun’s face. It was too powerful.

 

"If you do it well I’ll pay for dinner tonight, if you do it badly, you pay for dinner tonight."

 

That was all Chanyeol needed to hear. Damn Baekhyun and his knowledge that Chanyeol would _never_ back down in front of a challenge or a bet.

 

Five minutes later, when Baekhyun settled down on his seat in the beauty room after lining up a very hefty row of products on the vanity, Chanyeol wasn’t sure he was proud of himself for loving challenges anymore.

 

"That’s a lot of products," he couldn’t help but remark, staring at everything in wonder.

 

"That’s exactly what this face here needs," Baekhyun said, tapping his own cheek. The sound his fingers made against his skin was cute. Chanyeol wondered if he’d already been exposed to too much makeup, had already breathed in too much glitter - he never thought he’d find even _that_ lovely.

 

Hands on his waist, Chanyeol hummed, looking at the products before looking at Baekhyun again. He looked too entertained and happy about this. Chanyeol had no regrets.

 

"Should I bring the chair to sit on it?" he asked, pouting to the seat on his left with his chin.

 

It hadn’t been there the last time he was in this room. He’d had to sit on Baekhyun’s lap. He still remembered it clearly, how snug his arms had felt around his waist. How sweet death had felt at that time.

 

Baekhyun shrugged, reached to grab his hand, tugged Chanyeol closer to him, pulled his heart out of his body and appropriated it to himself, that easily.

 

"You could just sit on my lap again, if you’d like," he offered, letting go of Chanyeol’s hand, perhaps to let him know it really was just that - an offer and not an obligation.

 

But Chanyeol had no idea how Baekhyun ever expected him to say no to such a thing. He had to bite his lower lip to keep himself from being too eager. Carefully, he pressed a hand on the armrest and a knee on the spot between Baekhyun’s thigh and the armrest. He did the same on the other side, settling on Baekhyun’s lap and trying not to hyperventilate at how close they were to each other like this. Chanyeol wasn’t sure he needed to be this close to him to do his makeup. It didn’t matter when Baekhyun held onto his waist and pressed his chin against his chest, looking up at him.

 

He seemed to really like Chanyeol’s hoodie. He seemed to really like Chanyeol too.

 

Chanyeol patted the back of Baekhyun’s head before taking a deep breath in.

 

"Alright, it’s time to destroy your face," he announced with a grin, reaching for the blending sponge or whatever it was called - he couldn’t remember.

 

"You’re not going to destroy my face," Baekhyun snorted, threatening him with a pinch to his waist.

 

Chanyeol shushed him. "I’ll do my best not to." Truthfully, all he wanted to do was worship Baekhyun’s face. He supposed he now had a good enough excuse to do it through a lot of touching and up-close staring.

 

"Alright, get on it then," Baekhyun said, side eyeing him.

 

Chanyeol huffed at him and then reached for the bottle of foundation with the peach on it. Baekhyun had decided that this was the perfect moment to try it out.

 

"Do you think I need a primer first?"

 

Chanyeol looked up at Baekhyun from where he was about to pump the product directly into the round side of the sponge.

 

"A what?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

 

Baekhyun laughed, reached to rub his forehead against his chest. The action felt so tender, Chanyeol wasn’t even offended by the obvious laughter directed at him.

 

"It’s to prepare the skin for the foundation," Baekhyun said, looking up at him again, words satined by his smile. "It like fills in your pores, moisturizes your skin, and makes sure that the foundation lasts for longer and clings to you better."

 

Chanyeol stared at him for a blank moment.

 

"Which one is a primer then?" he asked, looking at the products laid out on the table.

 

He really had no idea how to do this. He was going into this with instincts only and that one time he’d woken up to watch Baekhyun doing his makeup. They’d never even talked about primers before.

 

"I won’t help you, that’s not fun," Baekhyun said, all cheeks and cuteness. Chanyeol wanted to mush his nose against his but that would be weird and disgusting so he huffed and looked at the products for longer instead.

 

After a moment of humming, he grabbed a jar, snorting. "It’s not that hard, it’s written _primer_ on it."

 

"Congrats, you’re such an amazing detective."

 

Chanyeol slightly bumped the jar on top of Baekhyun’s head, laughing in satisfaction when he let out a dramatic noise of pain. Then, Baekhyun scrunched his nose cutely and Chanyeol’s heart hammered against his chest, punishing him for even hurting Baekhyun the slightest bit.

 

He opened up the jar and dabbed the sponge into it, pulling it away and showing it to Baekhyun.

 

"That’s not enough, take more," Baekhyun shook his head, watching him.

 

Chanyeol rubbed the sponge into the product again until Baekhyun let out a panicked stream of _that’s enough_ ’s. He chortled, turning it into full laughter when he saw Baekhyun’s round eyes. They narrowed into crescents when he laughed along.

 

Then, he cupped Baekhyun’s chin with a hand and started rubbing the sponge against his skin.

 

"You have to dab it, not rub it. It feels like you’re trying to scrub my face like it’s a dirty plate," Baekhyun said, skippy with laughter.

 

"Oh," Chanyeol said, stopping to look at his cheek. It indeed had gotten a little red. "Sorry," he said, sheepish, before doing as told and dabbing the product on his face this time.

 

"It’s alright, babe," Baekhyun said, patting his back, making Chanyeol almost dab the sponge right into his eye from how sudden the pet name came.

 

He said nothing, licking his lips, studying Baekhyun’s face.

 

"Now, that’s a primed faced. Beautiful," he said, patting his cheek with the sponge. The sponge must be sad to realize Baekhyun’s cheek was plumper, softer, bouncier than it would ever be.

 

Baekhyun hummed, fluttering his eyelashes and showing off his cheeks, turning his head to the left and then back to the right. Chanyeol smiled and reached for the foundation this time, just as Baekhyun reached for his phone. He pumped the product on the sponge once, looked at Baekhyun’s face as he scrolled through the music app on his phone, then pumped two more times.

 

An unfamiliar song started playing and Baekhyun looked up at him again, features rounding up as he took in the foundation on the sponge.

 

"You might just be the most generous man I’ve ever met, Park Chanyeol," he said, laughter breezy, voice higher than usual.

 

Chanyeol looked at the sponge and shrugged.

 

"I didn’t know how much I should put on. Is that too much?" he asked, a little concerned now. He didn’t want to waste product.

 

"It’s alright," Baekhyun said, pushing his face against his until their noses brushed, eyes closing. "My face is yours to play with."

 

Chanyeol wanted to die.

 

He cupped the side of Baekhyun’s head, a bit awkardly, not sure how to really hold him, and then dabbed the product against his cheek. It left a big dollop of product and he couldn’t help but snort.

 

"What?" Baekhyun asked, opening an eye suspiciously. But he was smiling. He hadn’t stopped smiling since Chanyeol had settled on his lap.

 

"It looks like bleached mud," Chanyeol said through his grin, dabbing the sponge once on his other cheek and getting foundation in Baekhyun’s eyebrow when he burst into laughter just as he tried dabbing the sponge against his forehead.

 

"You say the weirdest things sometimes," he said before looking into the mirror and narrowing his eyes at Chanyeol. "Are you trying to erase my eyebrow?"

 

"It’s your fault!" Chanyeol defended himself. "Stop wiggling around." He pressed a hand against the table and pushed, twisting the chair around until Baekhyun faced away from the mirrors. "And looking is cheating."

 

"I never said I wouldn’t look until you’re done," Baekhyun whined, trying to turn them around again.

 

Chanyeol cupped the side of his neck. "Stay still," he warned and dabbed the sponge against his cheek, spreading the product. Baekhyun actually felt silent, obediently closing his eyes and letting Chanyeol do. Chanyeol held his breath in for a moment when Baekhyun’s hand fell to rest on his thigh.

 

He was careful not to rub the sponge against his skin and dab it instead, pulling Baekhyun’s hair up to get it properly on his forehead, dabbing more until he was satisfied enough with the spread. It looks wrong, somehow. Baekhyun usually didn’t look like he had anything on his skin but now, there was product all over his face, very obviously. Chanyeol pressed his lips together to keep himself from laughing when Baekhyun opened his eyes at him with suspicion.

 

"Do we get to the eyeshadow now?" Chanyeol asked, actually eager about that part.

 

"Already?" Baekhyun asked back, drumming his fingers against his waist. "Aren’t you gonna use anything else first?"

 

Chanyeol looked at the products over Baekhyun’s shoulder with confusion.

 

"Do I have to use everything? Are you sure?" That seemed like too much product. Baekhyun really never looked like he was wearing makeup anywhere but on his eyes and on the highlighted points of his face.

 

"I mean, you don’t have to. You can get to the eyeshadow. That’s the part you’re excited for anyway, isn’t it?" Baekhyun asked, trying to shake him a little.

 

"Exactly," Chanyeol shamelessly agreed, before looking down at his lap. "Are your legs okay?"

 

"They’re happy," Baekhyun assured, nodding firmly.

 

Chanyeol would surely die before they got to the highlighting part of this look.

 

The music changed into a more upbeat sound that Chanyeol recognized the melody of but couldn’t recall the title of. He prioritized the palette over it, grabbing it from the table and opening it up. He let out a small sound of amazement, even if he’d already seen it before, when Baekhyun had asked him to choose a shade that last morning.

 

"What are you gonna go for?" he questioned, looking down at the palette between them, his hair brushing Chanyeol’s forehead.

 

"I won’t tell," Chanyeol said, instantly pulling the palette away from him. He already had an idea. He did his best to ignore Baekhyun’s sulky lips and reached for one of the brushes Baekhyun had already picked out from him.

 

He remembered Baekhyun using that fluffy one first so he grabbed it and carefully dabbed it into one of the brown shades in the palette. Then, he cleared his throat, raising his eyebrows, and haughtily tapped the brush against the lid of the palette, the same way he’d seen Baekhyun do.

 

Baekhyun burst into laughter. "I don’t do it like that," he said, word hiccuping amidst his lovely chuckles.

 

Chanyeol shushed him again and cupped his cheek, turning his head to the left and bringing his brush up once Baekhyun closed his eyes. He hesitated for a moment. He didn’t remember where exactly Baekhyun had started but it shouldn’t be that hard. He pressed the brush against his eyelid once, pulled it away, and gasped.

 

Baekhyun’s eye shot open. "What?" he asked, wary.

 

Chanyeol grinned. "Nothing."

 

He felt a pinch on his thigh this time, the shot of pain jolting him up a little bit.

 

"That’s not nice, I thought you ruined my face or broke the brush or broke my face," he chided him, although it couldn’t look serious when his cheeks looked so smiley.

 

"That’s not a reason to rip my skin off," Chanyeol huffed, dramatizing the situation just because he could.

 

It earned him a rubbing against his thigh, right where Baekhyun had pinched him.

 

"Don’t be a baby," he said, not stopping.

 

All Chanyeol wanted to be was a baby. Baekhyun’s baby, precisely.

 

Once again, he said nothing, did nothing, and focused back on the makeup. Or else he’d end up glueing himself to Baekhyun’s lap. Or his lips. Or any part of him, really.

 

He went back to the eyeshadow, rubbing the brush against his eyelid, perhaps going a bit too close to his eyebrow. He darkened it, went back into the palette, darkened it, and then hummed when he decided that it was perhaps a bit too dark now.

 

"That’s very reassuring," Baekhyun said, voice low and dragged but the sarcasm palpable.

 

Chanyeol chose to ignore it, just to leave the surprise to the end. "Is it relaxing?" he asked instead.

 

"Totally," Baekhyun hummed, the sound so light, so similar to the way he sounded first thing in the morning. "I could fall asleep."

 

Chanyeol smiled and started working on the other eye, not saying anything else to let him enjoy the moment of peace, to allow himself to enjoy the music playing from the phone on the table.

 

Once both eyes were similarly failed, he grabbed another brush and went back into the palette, smiling to himself when he picked up a bit of that very glittery green shade.

 

"Woah," he said when he brushed the bristles against Baekhyun’s eyelid and the color instantly popped.

 

"What? What is it? How is it?" Baekhyun enumerated impatiently.

 

"It’s very beautiful. The best eye look you’ve ever worn," Chanyeol confidently affirmed, spreading the green on the inner half of his eyelid.

 

Baekhyun let out a groan of impatience that chanyeol soothed with a pat to his cheek before continuing to apply the green to his eyes. Perfect. This was the look of his dream. Except it kind of looked like a muddy nightmare.

 

Once he was done, Chanyeol applied highlighter on him plentifully, glowing up his cheeks, right under his eyebrows, his forehead, and even his chin. Then, he stared at Baekhyun’s nose. It needed to be highlighted too. But not with this actual highlight. He grabbed the eyeshadow palette again and rubbed his finger into a rosy, kind of golden shade. Then, he left a glittery boop on the tip of Baekhyun’s nose, pushing a chuckle out of him. It gave his nose a really nice, really round bright pink glow.

 

He hummed as he grabbed a lipstick then, a red one that kinda looked gooey when he pulled the wand out. Perfect. Strawberry. His theme was strawberries. Pink everywhere and red and the green on the eyes was the hat of leaves on top of every strawberry.

 

Baekhyun made for the cutest strawberry, even if he said a look without mascara or lashes was uncute when Chanyeol refused to apply neither of those on him from fear of poking his eyes out.

 

He asked Baekhyun to part his lips and kind of regretted it right away. How could a mouth look so pretty and adorable? Chanyeol wanted to coo at it. He had a hard time focusing on his task and overdrew Baekhyun’s lips, red lipstick getting everywhere around his mouth. Still the prettiest mouth ever though.

 

"Done?" Baekhyun asked once Baekhyun recapped the lipstick.

 

He stared at his face and hummed. He bit his lower lip and thought. He wanted to kiss him. Truthfully, he wanted to spend every single one of his days on Baekhyun’s lap, with his arms around him. He wanted it so much he could scream it for five minutes straight.

 

"Not quite," he eventually said, reaching for the palette and a brush again.

 

He parted his lips for a shaky breath and dipped a dense brush into a dark red color. He traced a letter on Baekhyun’s cheek.

 

"What are you doing?" Baekhyun laughed, keeping his eyes closed. Chanyeol could feel him thrumming with anticipation. He could feel himself shaking with anticipation too, now.

 

"You’ll see," he said, scrunching his nod at the paleness and the thickness of the line on Baekhyun’s cheek.

 

He dropped the palette and reached for the eyeliner he hadn’t used instead. It was much better, he realized after drawing the first letter, thinner and more defined. He cupped Baekhyun jaw and wrote on one cheek, passing to the other once there was no more room anymore.

 

He capped the eyeliner, checked his work, took a deep breath in, put the pen down, and cleared his throat.

 

"Done!" he announced, word perked up by nervousness more than anything else.

 

Baekhyun opened his eyes, blinked, so magnificently, Chanyeol wished he truly hadn’t just ruined anything. He shouldn’t be nervous. It was obvious at this point. But still. Still.

 

Baekhyun grinned at him and swirled the chair around to face the mirror, eyes widening and lips stretching into laughter as soon as he saw his face. Chanyeol laughed a long sound, a bit damper, staring at him.

 

"Why am I not surprised you used green?" he asked teasingly, narrowing his eyes at him. Chanyeol loved those eyes so much, green eyeshadow or not.

 

"Green is great," Chanyeol shrugged, biting his lower lip as Baekhyun turned his head, noticing the lines on his cheeks.

 

"Did you write something on my cheeks?" he asked with a chortle, squinting. Chanyeol’s heart jumped up and landed far away from him. "Can I be," he started reading, turning his head to the other side to complete it, "your boyfriend?"

 

Baekhyun stared at his reflection for a blank moment. Chanyeol kept it in, kept it in, kept it in, and then it burst out of him.

 

"Yes. You can be my boyfriend. Please. Thank you."

 

Baekhyun stared at him for a blank moment. A long moment. Chanyeol heard nothing but the anxious pounding of his heart. A long moment.

 

Then, Baekhyun burst into laughter, just laughed, loud, high, and pulled Chanyeol in - to laugh along, to hide in his tightening embrace.

 

Chanyeol folded himself in half, tucked his head and his laughter against Baekhyun’s neck, felt him bumping his chin against his head when the laughter grew hysterical for both of them and they wiggled around.

 

"I’ve been trying to figure out a way to ask you out and you just—" Baekhyun started, cutting himself off with a wheezy laugh.

 

It wasn’t until a long moment later they managed to actually look at each other without bursting into laughter at the first glance and clashing into each other again. Baekhyun’s hand was on his thigh, Chanyeol took a deep breath in to calm himself down, groaning at the stomach cramps.

 

They both breathed out at the same moment, triggering an additional chuckle. Chanyeol shook his head.

 

"I just couldn’t keep it in anymore. I know this was very very lame but I just couldn’t," he said, snorting at himself, rubbing his stomach.

 

Baekhyun leaned back into the chair, smiling up at him. His chest puffed up with a huff.

 

"It is very lame but your lameness makes me very happy so please, be lame forever."

 

Chanyeol groaned, hitting his chest lightly.

 

"You always say things that make me feel like I’m about to die," he blamed the other, keeping his hand on his shoulder. Just because he could.

 

Baekhyun beamed at him, the lights in the room sparkling on his cheeks.

 

"I know we don’t really know that much about each other yet," he said, shrugging a little, holding onto Chanyeol’s waist again. His legs were probably starting to get numb, Chanyeol should definitely try and rip himself away from him very soon. "But I’d really like to get to know you more this way. As a boyfriend."

 

Chanyeol bit his lower lip, let it go. "Can we kiss then?" he blurted out, watching Baekhyun’s smile stretch up higher. "I swear I’m gonna die if you don’t kiss me soon."

 

"Are these lips really what you wanna use for our first kiss?" Baekhyun snorted, gesturing to his mouth. It really was a disastrous application of red all around. He didn’t even have a cupid’s bow anymore.

 

"Hey, don’t insult my work of art," he still said, however, just because he was a little proud of this look, overall. Baekhyun still looked mesmerizing. No one suited green as much as him. "I worked really hard and truthfully, it’s not that—"

 

Baekhyun cut him off with a noisy smooch to his cheek.

 

"This one is transfer proof," he simpered when he pulled away.

 

And no. No. No, it wasn’t transfer proof at all. Chanyeol could hear the echo of that kiss in his chest, boisterous and clear.

 

Chanyeol met Baekhyun’s gaze, felt it draw him in, felt himself locked in there forever. He had no complaints. He wouldn’t mind swimming in Baekhyun’s eyes until the end of time. He leaned closer, closer, closer and when Baekhyun closed his eyes, he closed his too.

 

When their lips met, it felt like biting into a strawberry dipped into sugar. He could feel the lipstick against his lips, could almost taste it, but it was the best alliance he’d even experienced. Baekhyun’s lips and his, kissing. Pecking, sliding against each other, lower lip fitting between another pair of lips, upper lip nudging above a cupid’s bow, a hand cupping a cheek, laughter bursting between them when Chanyeol actually realized how sticky Baekhyun’s skin felt. He’d applied too much foundation.

 

Baekhyun kissed the corner of his lips, kissed his cheek, dived to kiss his neck. They knew next to nothing about each other yet. If Chanyeol’s heart learned more about Baekhyun, it might definitely manage bursting out of him and invade Baekhyun forever instead. Relatable. Chanyeol would also very much love to live in Baekhyun forever.

 

Baekhyun pulled away from him with a hum. Chanyeol’s eyes fluttered open into a daze. Why couldn’t he get one more neck kiss? He dived for more, grabbed Baekhyun’s smile into a kiss, felt fingers on his chin. He peppered kisses towards Baekhyun’s cheek and pulled away once he knew he was charged enough not to die after five minutes spent without kissing Baekhyun. Or perhaps he’d only charged for one minute. He already felt like he was about to combust as Baekhyun grinned at him, brandishing the eyeliner Chanyeol used on him.

 

He uncapped the pen, cupped Chanyeol’s cheek, and traced against his skin. Chanyeol couldn’t see what he was doing so he chose to stare at Baekhyun’s lips instead. The lipstick he’d drawn on his skin had barely even budged.

 

Baekhyun capped the pen again once he was done and turned them until Chanyeol could see his profile on the mirror.

 

His chest inflated. "Boyfriend?" he read out loud, so giddy he could probably vomit rainbows if he wanted to. His skin was a little red here and there, around his mouth and on his neck. Not entirely transfer proof, it seemed. He liked it.

 

"Yes. You’re my boyfriend now," Baekhyun nodded vigorously, cheeks twitching as he fought a smile. "Even if you just literally booped glitter on my nose instead of highlighting it."

 

Chanyeol wrapped himself around Baekhyun, pulling his head against his chest, muffling his laughter against the fabric of his hoodie, hopefully staining it with glitter.

 

He had a feeling Baekhyun would be the sparkliest boyfriend ever. Not just because of the glitter.


End file.
